Why do young black and Asian people’s views matter?
Jeremy Crook OBE, BTEG CEO
These are extremely tough times for young people.
The Black Training and Enterprise Group (BTEG) delivers programmes for young black, Asian and mixed heritage people in schools and community groups, and we use our links with government and employers to champion actions that can improve their success rates in education and employment.
We have campaigned for many years to increase apprenticeship opportunities for our young people, especially in sectors where there is under-representation, such as engineering, construction, and technology. One-third of school age young people are from ethnic minority backgrounds but only 8% of apprentices aged 16-19 are ethnic minority.
The Government is urging employers to ‘build back better’ after the pandemic. We all want to see businesses bounce back when the lockdown ends but there have been many job losses and, sadly, many firms have had to close their doors for good, despite financial support from the government.
But we must ensure that ‘build back better’ also means ‘build back fairer’.
With rising youth unemployment, we are deeply concerned that young black and Asian people will find it even harder to secure employment. Unemployment rates for African, African Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage young people tend to be higher than other ethnic groups even at graduate level.
So, we need to do everything possible to ensure employers and government ‘build back fairer’. Employers need to judge young people on their merit and character and not on their skin colour or faith.
The lives of young people have been severely disrupted on all fronts educationally, socially and economically.
Children and young people are familiar with on-line communication and they have done extremely well. But we have heard young people talk about how difficult it is to stay motivated when they have been confined to studying or working from home and are not able to do all the things they normally do. Their daily routines have been broken and their plans have been put on hold. Those from poorer backgrounds have had the added difficulties of lower incomes, less space at home and exposure to higher Covid-19 transmission rates.
As a country we must make sure that young people receive the wholistic support they need to get through the pandemic and be a key part of the national recovery.
We need to hear the views of young people and to know what is important to them - their views on Covid-19, Black Lives Matter, mental health, education and their employment prospects.
2021 marks 30 years since BTEG was established. To mark this anniversary, we are conducting a national survey of young people from African, Caribbean, South Asian, South East Asian or mixed ethnic background.
We think it is important to have good evidence that we can share with policy makers, including government ministers, mayors, employers and local councils, and, importantly, with other charities that support young people. Evidence/data matters. For BTEG it informs our priorities and the projects we develop.
Surveys provide evidence on what large groups of people think and feel about specific issues, so please share this blog and survey link https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/BTEG2020 with young people and youth groups.
