This morning the government announced that unemployment figures are up to 2.62 million, with youth unemployment over 1 million.

Why? Is it because of the economy, companies aren’t doing, as well so cannot employ people?

Is there a skill shortage? More and more students are coming out with more and more qualifications than ever before.

On the news this morning (yes I did watch it, my 5 min fix per day), young people who have degrees and qualifications coming out of their ears can’t find a job.

The common catch 22 dilemma they face is employers saying, you don’t have any experience. Well we all know without getting a job you CAN’T get experience.

So what is the young person to do? Do they have to wait until the economy starts to pick up and we start to spend money before employers take a chance on them and give them the experience they need?

This will take a long time.

When employers say you don’t have experience, there is no real answer a young person can give. The employer knows, without getting a job they are not going to get the experience.

So when an employer says you have no experience they actually mean you do not have the emotional capabilities to cope/deal with this position?

Think about, what do you gain with experience? Dealing with people, communication skills, handling your own emotions, self-control, managing people, empathy, self-confidence, initiative, teamwork. all the things and more you learn in Emotional Intelligence.

Because the word intelligence is part of this phrase there is a common misconception that it is to do with academic excellence. Far from it. What would be the impact on the unemployment figures if alongside academic study we were taught the core competences of emotional intelligence, Self-Awareness, Social-Awareness, Self-Management and Relationship Management?

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At school children are taught PSHE (Personal, Social, & Health Education). Having worked in schools the issue I have with the way it is taught, is that it is done from a knowledge/ academic viewpoint as opposed the teachers living and breathing it.

Post 16 it is assumed that you know how to deal with people. It is assumed that dealing with your emotions and managing other people is something we should ‘know’ how to do. Is this not what employers are looking for when that are looking for ‘experience’. You only have to look at the number of soft skills courses that the corporates send they employees on, to see the importance on these skills.

I will concede at this point that ‘experience’ could also mean actual experience in the job, i.e. applying the skills you have learnt to real life situations.

But I fear that the majority of times when employers are looking for experience they are looking for high levels of emotional intelligence.