Getting more Londoners into good jobs

I attended a Kingston Adult Education support class. Victoria was fantastic & helped me secure a short term seasonal job in tourism. I now want to return to her when this finishes in September to get another tourism role. I’m over 60 years old & in my previous employment for 32 years. I was clueless about dealing with AI & long application forms. Victoria held my hand until I was successful. 

Compared to 50 years ago - 1975 - school leavers are vastly better qualified and more prepared for the job market. A lot of qualifications at that time were very basic or nonexistent.  There is a lack of work placement opportunities for young school and college leavers.  Schools, colleges, job centres and also employers need to work together to provide them.

I attended a course in Richmond that helps with job search skills. It was brilliant and it gave me confidence at interviews and the trainers helped me polish my CV. They also taught me (over 50) how to find jobs by LinkedIn.

I tried to recommend it to my friends who live in different parts of London, but the course is only for people living in Richmond and Kingston. It's a charity called "Room for Work". It would be great if this is available for everyone in London. I attended the 12 -week course in person but my friends did it online. 

I worked in FE for a while and my view was that the academic terms were way too short for anyone to learn. If you've left school with minimal qualifications, or you want to learn to read/speak english/do numeracy, and you have low job pospects, then you need intensive support. What do you need multiple holidays for? I can't see that remotely helps people progress their lives. You need good well paid teachers (not just well paid managers), intensive teaching time and industry involved so there's a job at the end. My experience was chaotic timetabling (how can students with children plan to study when they aren't told the start date or times until the course begins?!), disrespect to students and the term ending when it's only just started. 

Could the GLA consider creating or supporting a targeted initiative that offers pathways such as:
Paid internships or placements leading to employment
Apprenticeship schemes tailored for mid-career professionals with advanced degrees
IT or professional development courses that bridge skill gaps and enhance employability

You're right catandmouse I'm also a disabled person and the only job I could find after my disability was as a volunteer Admin person at 3 charities.  It does break my heart that after spending many years as an Event Planner with great organisational skills the only thing I'm able to do is as an Admin volunteer 

It's a much bigger problem than London, but as someone who lives here I feel hopeless because all good quality, reputable training is insanely expensive and utterly unaffordable. Where subsidies are available, there are such narrow conditions around them that it is impossible to access them for most people.

I may be reasonably lucky with my salary, but over a third goes to my landlord every month, 250 in student loans, etc. I'd love to try a different career, or take time off to retrain/ go part time - but I cannot afford a paycut. You feel bottled in and hopeless in this city.

Provide actual subsidies and education to people, and find better ways of figuring out what is accessible to different people. 

Regulate the rental market - aggressively - so we are wasting less money on crappy housing.

Make deals with universities to offer x number of funded places to retrain properly. 

there is nothing about people with learning disabilities and disabled people that want to work and extra help that they may need or people that gave no qualifications it's discrimination every where you go I have read it all and none of this would would suit my needs or help me I don't think that this has been properly thought out I think that I could do better

Entry level jobs asking for 2 years of experience, what entry? What am I entering if I am already in the sector for 2 years?

Internships and apprenticeships where I can actually get the experience I need are only picking 1 out of 100+ candidates for peanuts. Where do I find two more jobs to afford renting a place when I can barely get my hands on one?

"Feedback" after the interviews are either of we can't give you any because we have so many applicants, or you are actually very good but we have proceeded with someone matching more closely to what we need. 

Job sites are filled the same openings getting reposted every few weeks only to never even pretend to hire anyone. 

Influencers and "career coaches" kept inventing ways to supposedly be the actual way to apply for a job: yup, it's a paid course on how to message people over LinkedIn; or to bring you to another job board that spams you with emails.

Okay. Let's say after everything, you have risen to the top and gotten a job. The commute will set you back almost an hours wage each way. 

The pyramid schemes, devil corps, task based "reward" scams are all enjoying this chaos of a job market in London. 

What about a 'These are the skills we value and look for' summary split down by industry and then sub industry?

Employers and industry need to own this and provide the inputs. And they need to work harder on it than the simple, but unhelpful, 'good interpersonal skills'. They need to spell out what they really mean, what good looks like, and why they are specifically relevant to that job/industry.

And not presented back simply as some grid with lots of words. The same content needs to be offered in multiple formats, styles to reflect that we all consume things differently. On a piece of paper, TikTok, Podcasts, webinars etc.  

Obviously knowing what skills are in demand and needed is only one side of the equation. But it's the start point

A one stop shop online platform sounds good in theory. Except different Londoners will always have different expectations which cannot be catered for on one platform. Lots of money and resource will go on something which will take ages and be under used. This isn't specific to this project or Talk London. Just ask yourself, in other aspects of your life, how many one stop online platforms you engage with?

What do I suggest instead? Use resource to implement lots of smaller, visible interventions/tests and see what gets any traction with Londoners.

I fully support the principle but think there are three key issues:

1.  How do you identify talent and bring it forward in a way in which both individuals and potential employers buy into it?
2. The main problem with education, IMO is that it is not vocational.  If London can step in to provide training which makes it better for employers to take on new people that would help.  I would have thought this could be through a sponsored apprenticeship with educational institutes and employers involved.
3. The new platforms need to be well promoted and to build confidence quickly.  Slow burn will not work.

I’m really fed up with everything being labelled as “green” — seriously, even struggling with life or job hunting has to involve talking about the “green economy”?

I like your ideas for a one stop shop for jobs and training / advise. This would help.

Current government barring those who have NOT worked (students), and are not on universal credit from getting help from job centre plus is appaling.

Students need to be prepared for work. Education is not a hobby, it is preparation for a successful working career. 

Schools need to offer experienced career advise which directs students to the route which will get them into work. Work is not a hobby and you need to understand if someone is paying you, you owe them a service even when things are a bit stressed.

Employers need to be more flexible about employing young and old, and be ready to progress them quickly when they join.

Employers need to either provide training or engage with the education system to make sure the training has already happened.

Employers need to STOP using AI to interview and reject candidates without any explaination at all.