Hopes that young Britons could plug a potentially massive post-Brexit labour shortage will stall unless concerted efforts are made to resurrect the dying traditional “Saturday job”, employers have said.

“Earning and learning” among youngsters has fallen off a cliff and needs to be “normalised” once again, according to the umbrella body that represents more than 200 organisations working with jobseekers.

While nearly half of 16- to 17-year-old students were studying and working 10 years ago, it had declined to as little as 18% by 2014, a reality that the Employment Related Services Association says will be hard to fix unless radical changes are undertaken by the government, employers and the education sector.

“The government has placed a big focus on work experience and trying to get young people into placements, but actually the main way people used to get experience of employment used to be by getting part-time work, whether it was agricultural work or in the coffee shop,” said Kirsty McHugh, the ERSA’s chief executive. “Talk to anybody over the age of 40 and they will have done bar work or some other sort of job earlier on. That is changing.”

Her comments come as the hospitality sector this week became the first major UK industry to set out a plan to reduce its dependence on EU workers. Without future EU migration, the British Hospitality Association said, hotels, restaurants and others faced a recruitment crisis, with upwards of 60,000 workers per year needed in addition to the ongoing recruitment of 200,000 workers to replace churn.



A strategy drawn up by KPMG focuses on three main sources of workers as the answer: the unemployed, “returners” to the labour market such as older people, and “the next generation”.

The absence of a substantial young people’s employment scheme could however be the rock on which hopes of engaging increasing numbers of young British workers founder. This coming week sees the beginning of the derided Youth Obligation scheme – a carrot-and-stick approach for 18- to 21-year-olds on universal credit.

Those involved are expected to take part in an intensive activity programme from the first day of their claim, be referred to training, and encouraged to take up an apprenticeship. A compulsory work placement awaits if they are not on either after six months.

“This whole policy has run aground and the government has said they will only do it in areas where there is full running of universal credit,” said McHugh, who added that young people were reluctant to engage with Jobcentre Plus, which is expected to roll out the new scheme.

“The concern for us is about the quality of the compulsory work placements. Some members hate them and regard them as unethical. Others say: ‘it might be compulsory but we can still make it good. There are still ways in which you can make a young person feel they have some control.’ The DWP [Department for Work and Pensions] has failed to put anything in place so it looks like the work placements will be organised by Jobcentre Plus. The question then comes about the quality of them.”

On top of this, employers and professional bodies cite a range of reasons for why the Saturday job or other part-time work at other times of the week has been dying out.

Rather than being displaced by EU workers, one major reason was that youngsters were instead focused largely on studies, according to McHugh. Separately, employers such as newsagents now cite the cost of insurance cover and health and safety regulations as reasons why they were not offering traditional Saturday job-type work, according to Martin McTague, policy director of the Federation of Small Businesses.

Working part-time to help children with maths and sciences at a tuition centre in London, Alda Saba (18) said that she was very much in a minority among her peers when it came to having a Saturday job.

“It’s because of A-levels. Even now many of the other tutors have had to leave in order to begin preparing for exams. I’m lucky enough to be quite academic though and love science and maths. I enjoy this, plus I wanted to see what it was like to work and have the experience on my CV.”

Waiting tables in west London, Bolia Damolende is also in no doubt about the benefits of balancing studying for his A-levels with working part-time.

“It’s gives you freedom and your own security when it comes to money, especially at an age when you are becoming more aware of expenses, whether it’s for things like festivals or just everyday,” said the teenager, who works one or two eight-hour shifts each week at a rate of £7.20 per hour.

Finding part-time work as a young person was difficult however, he added, citing the frequent desire of employers to hire people with prior experience. Competition from older, more qualified people from other EU states was also an issue.

“I was the only English person at my previous job for example and the competition was quite European-based. When someone was replaced it was with someone from another European country.

“I have an open mind about Brexit though. There’s no turning back now. It may make some jobs available but I think it tends to get overstated about how they will be.”

The government points to the fact that the number of unemployed 16- to 17-year-olds (116,000) stands at a record low.

A spokesperson for the DWP said: “The fact is we have one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in the world, and our dedicated Jobcentre Plus colleagues support thousands of young people to get into work every day.

“Our ambitious target of three million apprenticeship starts by 2020 will help us ensure more young people get the skills they need to succeed.”