The introduction of the Young Person’s Guarantee shows Welsh Government is committed to giving young people a helping hand. Sophie Howe, the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, talks to Business News Wales about why it is important to grow opportunities for young people in Wales and why doing so benefits employers.
Sophie Howe describes the Young Person’s Guarantee as a “fantastic investment for businesses who want to keep up with the times.”
The guarantee will provide under-25s in Wales with the offer of a place in education or training, support to find a job or become self-employed. For businesses, the Young Person’s Guarantee means a generation of better-prepared young adults entering the workforce – plus the Welsh Government is offering some specific recruitment and financial support to help employers create new opportunities for young people to join their team through work experience, work placements or employment.
Howe stresses the younger age groups are “crucial to the future of business,” adding: “Our current leaders mostly tend to be an older age profile and they won’t have grown up as digital natives. This is compared with our younger generations who, from a very early age, have engaged with IT. We need to be tapping into that knowledge that those in senior positions and those in business do not currently hold.”
Described by The Guardian as the “world’s first minister of the unborn”, Howe’s role is to provide advice to the government and other public bodies in Wales on delivering social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing for current and future generations, and assessing and reporting on delivering.
Howe, who took up the post in 2016, has led high-profile interventions around education reform, transport planning and climate change, challenging the government and others to demonstrate how they are taking account of future generations. She has secured fundamental changes to land use planning policy, major transport schemes and policy on housing, ensuring decisions taken today are fit for the future. She has represented Wales at the UN, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and several international forums, including chairing the Network of Institutions for Future Generations. “Young people are our future,” says Howe. “It makes economic sense to bring in younger people with new perspectives in.”
To find out more about the Young Person’s Guarantee and what it can offer you as an employer, visit businesswales.gov.wales/were-in-your-corner
