Anyone else feel like they have/will have no idea how to help their kids enter job market now?

I don't think we should be trying to help our kids get into the job market necessarily. We should instead be equipping them with the skills and qualities that will enable them to navigate these challenges independently.

Resilience, resourcefulness, initiative, curiosity, persistence, interpersonal skills, flexibility, positivity, the ability to adapt to change, confidence, self efficacy etc.

The world is going to keep changing, and it's inevitable that we won't be able to keep up. But we don't necessarily have to if we prepare our kids to be able to find their own way through. We need to nurture and support their development to facilitate that.

@Hufflemuff

Well university should be setting them up with placements and connections for work. This is a quality that you should prioritise when selecting a university IMO.

This! It's the biggest thing we hammered home to our son when we started looking at Uni open days etc. We researched prospective Uni's career advisory services etc and literally shoved the webpages in front of DS and ensured that at every open day, we visited their careers advice dept and talked to the staff there, also questioned the existing students when doing departmental tours, accommodation tours, etc., to ask what they thought of the careers advice, sandwich year placement advice, etc. We also all looked at league tables re careers advice scores, destinations (i.e. number in jobs) for each Uni, course, department, etc. We made such a big thing of it with our son that he finally got on board and started doing his own research, asking his own questions, etc. The difference in attitude between Unis was very shocking, with some going the "extra mile" and others basically doing little more than handing over a few leaflets!

The Uni he finally chose, was mostly based on their careers advice service. In the event, despite Covid restrictions, the careers advice was excellent. Several group talks, a few "one on one" sessions including CV review, sessions on "new" forms of online applications, online interviews, online aptitude tests, etc., group and individual "mock" interviews etc. All quite over whelming really and it was difficult for him to fit it all in between lectures and self study! He could easily have not bothered so much as it was all voluntary and most of the people he knew didn't bother doing everything that was available, but we'd really hammered it home to him to get as much advice/experience as possible.

It all came good and he now has a top graduate scheme job in one of the UK's biggest insurance/investment firms.

Number one is to get them into a work ethic as young as possible and prepare them for a life that doesn't revolve around them. Any kind of work - babysitting, waiting tables, dog walking, washing-up in a cafe, delivering leaflets. It's not the job that matters, it's the effort they have to make followed by a few quid in their pocket.

My DD16 is the same as your youngest – bright and capable, but SEN means she didn't do great in her GCSEs. Since September she's been studying for a BTECH in Animal Care and she absolutely loves it. She's already got a one-day-a-week work placement lined up, and an extended two-week one somewhere else, all hands on. She'll struggle at university so an apprenticeship while doing a zoology degree is more likely and the work experience she's doing now means she'll have a huge advantage over her peers doing A-levels first. So might be worth considering for your DS? But no, it's not a well paid industry unless you end up as director of a zoo or something equal – but that's certainly doable. We were a bit worried about DD not doing A-levels but now we are relieved she's already getting valuable work experience at 16. This one of the few professions that should be immune to AI advances – AI can't muck out elephants, feed monkeys or even walk dogs!

Trouble is that market will be flooded with people coming from other declining fields. There will also be less work due to loss of earnings in various workforces.

Agree, as a parent financially supporting DD at uni , looking at it from a practical/mercenary point of view, its in my interest if DD can secure a job. ....(the minimum maintenance loan doesnt stretch very far, if living away from home) but mostly i think it will be good for her confidence and give her a better chance when looking for work after uni, if she's at least had experience of interviews and various work places.

She's done volunteering at a charity shop, but the volunteering and unpaid internships that lots of people recommend all require financial support from parents (or maybe grandparents)

As it happened I didnt do anything to help DD get the 2 jobs she had over summer. I would probably get criticised for this but most days we gave her a lift for 1 journey/day when she was working at a job that took 2 hours to get to, on public transport (less than an hour in the car)

It is when they cant afford to pay rent to said parent, he can't kick them out because there is literally no accommodation that will take them. DS1 at 18 decidedHe didn't want to go to university and applied for approximately three hundred jobs. He got about four interviews and eventually a job. We have to help intervene and work out what was going wrong ( mainly that his cv didn't have the right words to be picked out by AI and that he is the age he is and living in the uk in 2025.)

I worry.

But I'm also not sure that it's my problem

I didn't see DS's personal statement. I don't know which universities he applied to (apart from the one he got a place at), and when he went looking for bar work in the town he's at college at, he discovered his lecturers were already behind the bar.

Gone are the days of walking into summer jobs, fruit picking, working at sports centres, restaurants etc etc - other people have those jobs already

I agree with @Hellinnnnn- there is no specialisms at grad level - there’s potential, keep options open but having the right personal characteristics is the most important thing at grad level. They want to know you can make the right decisions at every level from grad to partner. You need to work with people, most grads don’t place any importance on this they’ve been fed the qualifications matter more than anything philosophy.

That’s absolutely brilliant itsallabitofamystery!
Really creative. I agree that finding your own money making hustle is really important nowadays. With thousands of kids out of work and bloody robot interviewers they need to find a way to beat the system.
I HATE that it’s like this though. I feel
like we keep being told that the country is not productive enough, yet the government seems to have no interest in training/ supporting the next generation to become productive people!

I know of so many young graduates around age 24 who are just not getting into their first ‘proper job’.

I think that a trade is a great option right now.

I encouraged mine to work from as early as they could, paper rounds, pub work and eventually high street stores through college. They gained soft skills, customer service skills and time keeping.
my eldest finished university mid August and started a post grad role in her field in mid September. She’s done extremely well but they did say they liked her previous work ethic and she was confident when they met at one of the stages in the process.
set them up be an all rounded individual and employee and hope they take your lead

Personal characteristics don't pay mortgages, not really. Focus on specialisms, and personal characteristics, they're not mutually exclusive

Having watched the difficulties some of my friends children have had finding jobs, I’ve funded my eldest through a “side hustle” so that at least she has an income whilst at college. She qualified as a lash and nail tech whilst in year 11 (you can’t do it until you’re 16), and she qualified with an NVQ Level 3 in July of this year. Since then she’s renting a chair in a salon and earning around £100 a day doing beauty. She’s in college 3 days a week and 1 day placement, so there’s not a lot of spare time but it least it brings in an income. It’s also allowing her to learn about bookkeeping, tax, profit etc. And it’s also something she’s got a skill for life, should she not find her dream job. So I plan to do the same for my youngest, except she will do dog grooming. Every other person around here has a cockapoo. We have Lhasa’s, people have shitzus etc. they all need grooming. Ours cost £65 a month. I did the math on how much my groomer must be earning and it makes no wonder she can afford 7 holidays a year! And I don’t expect the dog grooming industry to slow. DD is only 14 now but literally cannot wait to get started. The £3k fee will be well worth it in my eyes.

Now I get that not everyone will be able to give their child a helping hand. But if you can, it’s worth thinking about. There are loads of courses you can pay for that they can do part time - plumbing, plastering including, not just hair and beauty (and dog grooming). But, I’d also recommend them applying for jobs too as interview skills are a must. Before my DD qualified in the nails, there was a gap between her finishing school where she applied for part time jobs - JD, Superdrug etc. Going to those made her a whole lot more confident and able to speak to people. Whilst she didn’t get these jobs, I’m pretty sure she would have been a lot more reserved than she is now.

@Fearfulsaints thank you

Support their 22 year old, not do it for them. So encourage them to look at Indeed, company websites. Also check cv and job applications to see if there’s any spelling mistakes or anything they’ve missed out.

I think this nicely proves the OP's point that parents are out of touch with how to help their children find jobs.

With loans barely scratching the surface, more and more students are looking for jobs and supply massively outstrips demand. DC's university reckons over 100 applications for every part time job suitable for students in the surrounding area. Many never find anything. My DD (who has worked through sixth form and summer holidays in her home town) reckons she is unemployable in terms of getting a student job. She is 19.

There are something like 750,000 undergraduates…. UCAS are bandying round the phrase “project million” which means they think there’ll be a million undergraduates fairly soon…. And each year there are fewer than 18000 places on grad schemes. Makes me wonder about the value of even going.

My nearly 17 year old has never had paid employment, it’s rare amongst his friends! One works on the family farm, one gets casual hours in a pub but that’s it. On the rare occasion he gets any feedback it’s “needs more experience”

I do understand that the world is a different place now but I’m not sure any parent should be steering their child career wise. Set them up with some basic life skills, interview practice, encourage work experience. Help them to understand their options and if they have a specific career in mind great but be practical and have a back up. If they're unsure get them to have a think about what their good at and what they enjoy see if any careers logically fit but ultimately I think it’s important that DC make their own choices.

My parents never advised me. I think this is one of those things where yet more parental involvement might be a hinderance.

I recruited for an internship a couple of years ago; universities were offering grants to small companies to take on their students over the summer.
We were very disappointed with the quality of applicants provided by a top 5 uni - we declined the offer of a grant as their students had not prepared well, they were unfamiliar with our company and industry, and hadn't even taken the time to read our website. Their applications were littered with spelling and grammatical mistakes, and their cover letters were not tailored and many hjadn't even bothered to consider questions for us at the interview.
So I'd say get the basics right it will put you ahead of at least 50% of the applicants - it's easy to find out what you need to do to prepare - the internet is littered with great advice (maybe stay away from the American advice (different work culture). And if you don't want a job, don't waste everyone's time submitting a poor application.

Its an online interview where AI ask preset questions, then you reply, its recorded, then ai reviews it. Then a human if ai liked it. Its hard as you get no human feedback as you go along and its strict with the timings. Like if it says 30 seconds to answer it means it and just cuts you off.

Im sure with practice its ok.