Government must prioritise graduates in job hunt

10.28.30am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 25th Aug 2006

Chair of Alliance Youth Wing, Ian James Parsley

Chair of the Alliance Party youth wing, Cllr Ian James Parsley, has said the Government must do more to ensure graduates are helped into work in Northern Ireland.

The North Down Councillor stated: "Government services and programmes to help people into work are too often structured so as almost to ignore graduates. Having finished University, many graduates are determined to stay in Northern Ireland, but all too often they find challenging career options lacking here, and assistance to job hunters focused away from those with good qualifications.

"People have not gone through 3-4 years of University to work in a bar or a call centre in the long term. They have the skills, potentially, to create wealth and further employment, and they must be encouraged to do so here.

"Government must ensure that officials in job centres are fully up-to-date with graduates' requirements as they come out from University, so that they are able to assist graduates into work as a priority. We cannot afford to lose yet another generation of highly-skilled people to the 'brain drain'. We need to ensure, as far as possible, not only that our unemployment level remains low, but that the quality of employment offered matches graduates' skills and requirements."