Youth unemployment
20,000 young people in Northern Ireland are without work and outside the education system. Peter Cheney talks to Ryan about life on the dole.
Youth unemployment is a sign of the times with one in five of Northern Ireland’s 18-24 year olds on the dole. The phrase NEET (not in employment, education or training) regularly features in the media and one unemployed young person has talked to agendaNi about his frustrations with life without work.
Ryan, from East Belfast, is 19 and has been unable to find a job since he left school two years ago. “None, not one” of the nine pupils in his class in high school have jobs.
He studied joinery at college but, out of 16 in his class, only four found a placement. He has worked as an apprentice copper-fitter and now wants to get into warehousing. One of his friends has been doing that for six months.
“I’m in an agency, you see, and if any work comes up, I get a job, but that’s what I’m dying for,” he says. “Every job I’ve seen I’ve applied for. Like Iceland. I’ve applied for Curry’s warehousing but I’ve just had no luck, haven’t even got an interview.”
Lack of education is the main barrier facing him. “I’m not educated as much as the other people that are applying for them,” he adds. “So somebody obviously that’s applying better is going to have a better chance.”
One of his qualifications through college is the equivalent to a GCSE C grade but he needs to have a placement to go back and study more. He spends his time playing the X-box and going out with his mates at the weekend.
Finding work is his main ambition in life. “That’s all I want: a job. If I get a job, I can start driving and can do all that but without a job, I can’t.”
Living in Belfast is good in the summer but “there’s nothing to do at all” in the winter: “If I had a job, it wouldn’t be half as crap ‘cos I’d be working and then I’d be going out more. Obviously, if you earn your own pay, you enjoy it more.”
He saved up his dole money to go on holiday to Benidorm last summer and also went to Africa with a volunteer team organised by youth workers in the area. The young people covered some of the costs through fundraising and a local church paid for the reminder.
Going to Africa was “brilliant” and gave him 100 hours of volunteering which is now on his CV.
“If I got work away, abroad, I’d move,” he explains. A training course for North Sea oil rigs costs around £1,200: “Once you get on [a rig], you get paid a grand on, a grand off … and apparently if go on and work in the canteen or brushing, you get £600 a week. You know, I’d brush for £600 a week.”
Joining the army is his last resort but he doesn’t know if he’d like it: “It’s a dodgy one, isn’t it? If I can’t get a job, that’s where I’ll be going.”
The good news from the statistics is that youth unemployment is not rising as fast as before. Back in 2006, the number of jobless young people was much lower (8,600) and an economic recovery will shorten the dole queues again.
Since the interview, Ryan has found work and his story shows how giving a young person a job can practically boost their self-esteem and give them the chance to do more with their lives.
