How to help your teen be more employable

In our work helping young people develop their career plans, we get a lot of questions from teens and their parents about the job market for young people. In particular, what makes a young person stand out for employers and how parents can help their kids get the jump on developing these important skills.

So, we looked into it. We checked out some recent studies and data and asked people who are actually hiring young people, to get their perspectives about what makes a great young employee these days, and get some expert opinion on how parents can help their kids.

It all came together in a webinar panel discussion (and here’s the recording) in which Travis Field, a veteran employer of young people, hiring thousands of teens into the armed forces and hospitality, Hamish Wilson, Partner at Deloitte, and leader of their graduate programme, and Justine Lamont of Good to Great Parenting discussed their views on the topic.

We were surprised to find that both Travis and Hamish named essentially the same five characteristics and skills, even though they work in very different industries:

• Social Interaction

• Resilience

• Ownership/accountability

• Intellectual curiosity

• Teamwork

Over the next five blog posts we will be looking into each of these critical skills, sharing Hamish & Travis’s observations about why they are so important at work, and Justine’s top tips for parents on how to help kids to develop these sought after skills. 

For a bit of ‘job market’ context, we read a recent study from MBIE and MSD which highlighted trends affecting youth employment:

• A general decrease in job quality, meaning young people may not get the promotion or development opportunities they hope for. Factors such as fewer trainee and graduate positions may be at play here.

• There are fewer job opportunities, partly driven by people working longer and retiring later, and automation eliminating entry level jobs

• The growth in casual contracts, fixed term and part-time work mean many young people are in entry-level jobs for longer, or in jobs for only a short period of time.

• It can be hard to get a full time job at entry-level if you’ve had no work experience and many young people find it hard to get any kind of experience before looking for full-time work, and

• employers are looking for ‘soft skills’ from the start.

While the macro issues of Covid, aging workforce, AI and automation are essentially out of our control, we can take heart that youth unemployment in NZ has been far, far worse in the past (it is now only slightly higher than pre-Covid levels) and we can support our kids to develop those important skills and capabilities that employers are seeking these days. 

Stay tuned for our up-coming blogs where we explore why each of these skills is essential for our young workers today and how parents can help their kids to develop them. 

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