The collapse in entry-level jobs
Entry-level vacancies on the Island fell by around 30% in the first half of this year, and entry-level professional roles by around half. Jersey, Guernsey, Malta and Gibraltar saw no such drop. The number of young people not in education, employment or training now higher here than in the UK. This is not simply the economy contracting: something is happening to starter jobs specifically, and it is happening here in a way it is not happening to our competitors. We need to work with business to find out what is preventing them from offering entry-level jobs.
Vocational training and keeping our young people here
Young people are leaving. It used to be the graduate "brain drain", with graduates not returning because the opportunities weren't here. Now those opportunities are shrinking for school leavers and apprentices too. However, one industry is always crying out for local staff: health and social care. An ageing population makes it a genuine growth industry, and I would like to see Health and Social Care Apprenticeships created. It would provide a paid route for school leavers with real progression into nursing and allied healthcare professions that keeps them on the Island. Every post filled this way is one less agency placement or off-Island recruitment, which cost us more.
We cannot tell how our education system is performing
Manx students sit the same GCSEs and A-levels as students in England, marked by the same awarding bodies, and go on to compete for the same jobs and university places. Parents should be able to see how we compare and right now they can't. The Department publishes headline pass rates to the media each August with nothing that allows anyone to track them over time or set them against national figures. Our schools are externally validated by a contractor, but that process explicitly does not offer a judgement on any school or on the system. it is a worthwhile professional development exercise but it is not accountability and it was never designed to be. The current validation contract ends this year. I'll push for exam results to be published annually in a form comparable with UK data, and for whatever replaces external validation to produce findings a parent can actually read about their own school.