For many centuries, the
process of turning wool into thread was performed with the aid of various simple
contraptions involving spinning a wheel by hand or a foot pedal. The lumps of
cotton would be fed into the simple machine, stretched and twisted by a spindle
into long threads ready to be woven into cloth to make garments. People had been spinning thread like that for
hundreds of years, making enough for their own domestic use, or on very limited
scales.
One day in 1720, Mr and Mrs
Hargreaves from Lancashire gave birth to a bouncing baby boy who they named
James. James’ parents were quite poor and so it was, James never went to
school; he never learnt to read or write. However in 1764, James Hargreaves invented
a spinning machine that would eventually revolutionize the Textile industry.
Hargreaves’ invention (The Spinning Jenny), made it possible for spinners to
increase their output by a factor of 8, thus laying the foundation for the
industrialization of weaving.
From the late 1700s, with key
innovations like the Spinning Jenny, Britain led the rest of the world through a
massive explosion of achievements from agriculture, transport, technology and communications.
This exciting period in world history would
later become known as the “Industrial Revolution.”
By the early 1800s, the
industrial revolution was spreading and evolving faster than it could be
controlled. It was affecting people’s lives in ways that couldn’t have
previously been imagined. Innovations in
production saw factories springing up quickly to meet demand. However, such production was labour intensive
and as a result, armies of men, women and children from the ranks of the
underprivileged were recruited to mine raw materials and operate the various
machines needed to increase output to match the insatiable demand for new
products.
No one was prepared for the
rapid pace of industrialization and innovation during this period. It was
impossible to command a big picture of how things were evolving and the impact
such massive growth would have on society as a whole. Little wonder then that
there were no laws in place to protect the workers and with no labour laws to
regulate their activities, employers pushed their workers to the limit. Men
women and children worked 12-14 hours a day in deplorable (often inhumane) conditions,
for very low wages.
The Factory Act of 1833 was
the first meaningful law which helped to protect children in that it limited
work for children aged 9-13 in textile factories to no more than 48 hours a
week. This was followed by the Mines Act 1842 which prohibited women as well as
boys and girls under the age of 10 from working underground. Things were pretty
tough back then.
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The introduction of the World
Wide Web in 1991, marked the beginning of the Internet Revolution. This new
Information Age is a shift away from the old analogue methodologies and
paradigms that were the backbone of the age of industrialization. Automation
(the use of computers to control machines that do the work of humans) has
replaced the human labour intensiveness that characterised the industrial
revolution.
The rapid growth and evolution
of this new digital age, has caused seismic disturbances in every type of
industry and has created new threats to employment. But just as it was at the
onset of the Industrial revolution, it is impossible to forecast the full
extent the internet age will have on society. But as the rate of innovation
increases, it is clear that the demand for new skills will also increase and in
contrast; the skills that were so in demand under the old industrial world, are
becoming obsolete, therein lays the very real threat to employment.
It is with this rapidly
shifting technological backdrop that we find not only a glut of workers with
obsolete skills but also a younger generation (people between the ages of
18-24) from less privileged origins who cannot compete in the job market to
fill the demand for rapidly changing skill sets.
Notwithstanding the fact that
youth unemployment rates are always higher than adult unemployment rates, in
this technological age education is all the more crucial.
In the industrial age, it
didn’t matter that James Hargreaves was illiterate, that was not an obstacle to
inventing the Spinning Jenny. But if Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry
Ellison, and Elon Musk were illiterate, our 21st century would look
very different indeed.
As the pace of innovation
increases, new industries and markets will emerge and existing businesses will
find themselves threatened by competitive pressures that were not even relevant
last year and in turn they will struggle to prepare for, or respond to those
threats… This makes sense if their entire business proposition is based upon
the Industrial World order (The old way). Many of these businesses may well see
the need to shift their thinking in response to the digital disruption of their
market, but even so, many may not have a coherent strategy to deal with those
threats and wouldn’t really know what skills to employ to successfully compete
in the new marketplace. What we are witnessing is the demise of the traditional
business model.
Governments should recognize
that the only way to combat youth unemployment in the digital age is through an
education policy geared to meet this new reality. For example, perhaps it would
be prudent to make coding and internet technology mandatory subjects just like
reading, writing and mathematics in secondary schools.
For young people currently
between the ages of 18-24, perhaps the UK Government could take a page out of
Germany’s book and offer free university or technical college places to
academically qualified people.
Perhaps government could have
a flat minimum wage rate for all workers including 16 year olds and those on an
apprenticeship. And speaking of apprenticeships, perhaps government could
create a series of programmes which incentives industry to take on and train
under qualified youth with the real prospect of a job at the end of the
programme.
Perhaps government could stop
demonising and punishing unemployed young people and instead focus energy and
money on creating and publicising high quality vocational courses aimed at
meeting the skills demanded by industry, instead of the odd 2 week course in
hairdressing.
These measures, combined into
a comprehensive, coherent and well publicised strategy would drastically reduce
youth unemployment in the 21st century and make Britain better
positioned to take on the challenges of the future as the digital era unfolds.
Mike Enwright
Centre for Leadership and Management Development
18-36 Wellington Street
Woolwich
SE18 6PF
02083177380
www.clmd.org.uk
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