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Gap-year youngsters don't want to return to UK because of job fears

Overseas gap-year projects are seeing a “new phenomenon” with growing numbers of requests from young people who do not want to come home because they fear they won’t get a job.

Recent research by Project Abroad shows a rise in requests to stay in countries, including Romania, Ghana and Brazil.

Project Abroad’s founder and chairman Dr Peter Slowe said: “In nearly 20 years of operation we have never seen young people basically not wanting to come back home. This is a new phenomenon.”

Nearly one third of people claiming job seekers’ allowance in the North East are aged 18 to 24, with warnings that this could be the worst recession for young people in 80 years.

A joint report by the Princes’ Trust and Sheffield University said one in five young people collecting their GCSE results next week could be on the dole by the time they turn 21, based on an assumption trends will continue like previous recessions.

Professor Danny Dorling, from Sheffield University, said: “If the number of young people on the dole exceeds a million, this summer’s school leavers will be the hardest-hit since the 1929 crash, with those without qualifications worst off.”

32,000 students will be leaving school this summer, and those with no GCSEs are twice as likely to be on jobseekers’ allowance than those with qualifications.

Peter Branson, North East director of the Prince’s Trust, said: “It is more important than ever that we support those with fewest qualifications before they become a lost generation.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .