Recently Satro has been investigating the areas of Surrey’s economy that are projected to grow in the next few years in order to identify what opportunities there might be for young people in our region. We will be encouraging local businesses to consider taking on young people – and trying to find out if there any barriers to doing so.
We are currently carrying out a study of the Financial Services sector – which is a very strong sector in Surrey , with many small and medium-sized companies as well as larger, national, employers. We asked employers if they currently employed young people at ages 17-19 – or if they might consider doing so in the future.
Larger employers in the region tell us that they frequently have programmes in place to employ young people and train them, mostly using traditional apprenticeships in customer services or business administration. They told us that employing young people enables them to have flexibility, and brings in new ideas.
However, many smaller employers in the Financial Services sector said that they did not wish to employ young people – the main reason given was perceived poor employability skills in young people. This is a worrying perception, which means that many businesses which might benefit from the talents of our young people are missing out.
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