The Catch 22

Exams are finally over and a wave of relief comes over the majority of UK students. No more assignments, deadlines and having to sit through laborious lectures while lectures read from Power Point slides. However, this is short lived. It then dawns upon graduates that they have to move into the ‘real world’. But, how do they do this? There is a Catch 22 pandemic in the UK that needs to be highlighted.

Numerous friends are now seeing the full effects of this. They have been at university, for the past three years, building their academic portfolio. This in itself is an endeavour, but now when they are looking for employment they hear the words, ‘but what experience do you have?’

A typically example of this is a friend who is looking to go into counselling. She has a top degree in Psychology and is looking to gain practical experience wherever possible. While at university she was recommended to apply to numerous charities to build up this experience. To her dismay, she was surprised to find that the majority of charities required experience, some as much as 2 years, or there were limited opportunities outside of London (Catch 22!). This left her feeling frustrated and to be honest I am not surprised! Like me, she thought that by being a voluntary organisation that they would be open to giving people ‘a chance’. When she told her lecturers about this she was hit with the response ‘oh, I didn’t realise it was so strict these days?’ To me this implies that it was a lot easier when they were starting out. Organisations were willing to give them a chance.

This kind of story is not unique and is probably being mirrored across the UK. Highly motivated graduates, with ample skills to offer, are being turned away. What I find the most frustrating thing is that this has now moved into the voluntary sector.

V: ‘Could I volunteer with you please?’

C: ‘Do you have any experience?’

V: ‘No, that is why I would like to volunteer with you so I can build up my experience.’

C: ‘Oh, well you need to have previous voluntary experience to volunteer with us.’

 Youth Employment UK is a voluntary organisation and has a lot of connections with other voluntary organisations. Hopefully, they have a connection to help my friend (and thousands of other graduates) to find the experience they need to make a start on the career ladder.

This Catch 22 situation can be and needs to be changed!