Recruitment industry grandee Sir Alec Reed is sponsoring a competition offering a £10,000 prize to the best essay on measures for reducing youth unemployment.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph about the HJI-Reed Youth Unemployment Prize, presented in association with the paper, Reed expresses his concern around “the paradox of unacceptably high levels of youth unemployment while businesses continue to report a shortage of skilled workers”.

Reed himself gives some recommendations for what can be done (see below ad). 

Suggestions include “nationally-recognised qualifications in business-related subjects… to complement the academic subjects studied by university students”, making it easier for young people in education to leave and enter the job market, before their rigid end date, and greater provision of remote learning.

He concludes: “We cannot accept a system in which students are leaving years of education – with potentially large sums of personal debt and government finding behind them – to find that they are unqualified for the jobs advertised and vacant.”

Would-be essayists need to get moving quickly; if you think that your 1,000 words (or fewer) could be worth something, you have until tomorrow to submit. More information on the HJI-Reed Youth Unemployment Prize can be found on the Telegraph's website.