Young Britons ‘less confident about career prospects than international peers’

The findings come after students across the country received their A-level results last week.

The Prince’s Trust said the youth unemployment rate for 15 to 24-year-olds globally has been above 13% for the last decade and a half (Philip Toscano/PA) (PA Archive)

Young people in the UK are less confident about their career prospects compared to their international peers, new research has revealed.

A YouGov survey conducted for The Prince’s Trust found those in lower-income countries were more optimistic about having better jobs than their parents.

It also found a large proportion of young Britons were worried about always having secure employment in the future.

The Prince’s Trust said the youth unemployment rate for 15 to 24-year-olds globally has been above 13% for the last decade and a half, more than three times the rate for over-25s.

The charity commissioned a survey using online interviews of almost 13,000 young people aged between 18 and 34 across 10 countries in June.

About half (51%) of those surveyed from the UK said they were confident they would have a better career than their parents.

However, lower-income countries including Ghana (95%), India (80%) and Mexico (77%) had noticeably more people who were confident.

A third of Britons surveyed in the research (33%) also said they did not feel confident they would always have secure employment.

Around the same number of Britons (35%) were concerned they would not have a fulfilling career.

More broadly, 86% of all those surveyed around the world said digital literacy will be important, but 37% said they did not have the digital skills required to be successful in work.

The findings come after students across the country received their A-level results last week, with efforts made to bring results back down to pre-pandemic levels.

Alison Brittain, chair of The Prince’s Trust Group, said: “With sustained levels of high youth unemployment around the world, young people’s futures are more at risk than ever before.

“We are calling on global decisionmakers and business leaders to focus their efforts urgently on tackling youth unemployment and ensuring that all young people have access to the skills they will need to be successful in their future working lives”.

Since being founded in 1976, The Prince’s Trust has helped more than one million young people in the UK.

It now operates in over 20 countries in the Commonwealth and beyond, delivering education, employment, enterprise and environmental projects.