Action for Race Equality’s inaugural Youth Employment Conference brought together stakeholders from across the voluntary, community and civic sector, as well as employers and policy-makers, to discuss the key issues young Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage people face in the workplace today.
From issues with unequal opportunities to feelings of disenfranchisement, the call for reform was clear: institutional racism, biases and systemic policies that put a glass ceiling on talented young people have no place in modern Britain.
Action for Race Equality believes the employment sector has an urgent responsibility to ensure that young people are not limited in what they can achieve in life because of their race, ethnicity or faith. At our conference, we discussed several key policy changes that could be implemented to achieve this.
Government leadership
We know that achieving race equality in the UK will potentially bring a £24 billion per year boost to the UK economy. The Government has a clear responsibility to provide leadership on improving the employment sector for young Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage people.
The Department of Work and Pensions needs a clear strategy on ending racial disparities in employment. This strategy should include smart goals on reducing disparities, provide clear guidance on various opportunities to increase employment rates such as positive action and apprenticeships, and promote greater employer transparency through mandatory reporting on the ethnicity pay gap which should be collated and published annually by the government.
Employer Transparency
Employers are key to increasing employment rates for young Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage people and should take initiative within their own companies to achieve this goal. Employers should collect data on the identity of their workforce – including ethnicity, age, and gender – and analyse key outcomes such as pay, progression, retention, and recruitment for these identities. This will allow for a better understanding of where a company is excelling and where additional work needs to be carried out. This analysis should be monitored against a strategic plan that seeks to improve the number of young ethnic minority people working in their companies.
We would like employers to commit to publishing the data and a review of this data against the wider labour market annually. Employers should also encourage peers across their networks to be more transparent in how their companies are performing when it comes to their workforce inclusivity.
Social Mobility
Social mobility programmes are important in increasing the diversity in the workplace, but we must make sure that social mobility is not seen as a substitute for purpose made programmes which focus on improving racial equality within workplaces. Access to key programmes such as mentoring and sponsorship for Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage people has been in steady decline since 2018.
We need purpose-made, culturally competent work programmes that aim to improve the employment rate of young Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage people. Social mobility programmes should be treated as an addition, rather than as a replacement for programmes, policies, and projects which are centred on improving race equality in the workplace.
Positive Action
Positive action is a tool which can be used to end discrimination in the workplace, but currently it is significantly underused given that it is a voluntary process. We would like to see more employers utilise positive action within their companies and would encourage any employer who wants to learn more about positive action to look at our Positive Action Guide and Inclusive Employers Toolkit.
The Transition from School to Work
Young Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage people often feel under prepared when it comes to joining the workforce after leaving school. This is, in part, due to lack of guidance about future career options, but also the growing disparities in the number of Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage children taking BTECs over A-Levels, as well as the new grade anchoring which doesn’t accurately reflect the old grading structure.
We would encourage schools to ensure that young people are engaged in education, prioritise careers coaching for young people, and provide them with the information and support to find a career that they are passionate about.
Better Data
The data resources that are available to understand the reality of employment for young Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage people are not strong enough. ARE would welcome government data publications that compile statistics from data sources across the employment sector which provide a more comprehensive overview. This data must allow for disaggregation of ethnicity and age to allow a to better understand the issues faced by specific communities so that effective interventions can be implemented.
Commitment
According to the Race at Work Charter survey 2023, 84% of employers had built race equality as a priority into their organisation’s strategic objectives. However, only 44% of employers who participated in the survey had made personal performance objectives relating to this. Action for Race Equality is committed to working collaboratively with funders, employability organisations and employers to better support more young Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage people into work, and so we would invite any organisation wanting to turn intention into action to get in touch with us about our training and consultancy services, and to sign up to the Race at Work Charter.
Apprenticeships
Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage people are underrepresented in apprenticeships and growth in representation has stagnated, with the number of apprenticeships starts in 2022/23 growing by less than 2% compared to around 12% the year previous.
Action for Race Equality has campaigned over the past twenty years for apprenticeships starts and achievements to reflect England’s ethnic diversity. The government must publish data on degree-level apprenticeships and encourage employers to publish data on apprenticeship applications and recruitment for us to improve race equality in apprenticeships.
The Department for Education to work more proactively with employers to improve the recruitment and retention of ethnic minority young people for apprenticeships and support them in their routes to employment.
Find out more about our work to tackle race disparities in employment.
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