On February 20, 2008, the British Council launched a new website for young people dealing with issues of employment.

The website, www.workjam.org, encourages young people to discuss subjects like workplace skills, job hunting and CV writing. The idea is to get marginalised groups, such as those who do not stay in formal education, to express their opinions. WorkJam hopes to take these opinions to policy makers in the future.

Visitors to WorkJam can post comments on forums and take part in opinion polls. According to Firzana Perveen, a UK British Council staff member working on this project, the British Council hopes to get an “international perspective on youth unemployment” through the website.

In a press release marking the launch of the website, British Council UK wrote: “Of the world’s estimated 191 million unemployed people in 2004, about half, or nearly 86 million, were aged between 15 and 24.  Young people are two to three times more likely to be unemployed than ‘adults’. When young people are unable to make choices that will improve their job prospects, this perpetuates the cycle of insufficient education, low-productivity employment and working poverty from one generation to the next.”

The WorkJam website is the first phase of a British Council Governance and Society project called Working Live. This project aims to “examine issues [of unemployment] and other crucial dimensions of employment as it affects both individuals and the societies.” In the second phase, Working Live will produce a film festival bringing together those involved in employment (such as employers, union representatives, education department officials) and young people.

“We have just completed a video conference between a group of Jordanian and Scottish 19-25-year-olds which highlighted similarities and some differences,” says Perveen. “For example, being female in the workplace in Scotland was no longer as big an issue as it was with the Jordanian youngsters.  The first female courier in Amman spoke about her difficulties working in an all-male environment but this held no resonance for the young people in Edinburgh.

“We want to highlight the issues that young people raise internationally to give policy makers a better understanding of the difficulties that need to be tackled.”

Perveen says the British Council is looking forward to hearing the opinions of African youth on the forums: “We would love African users to use the WorkJam site. We are planning more video conferences bringing different nationalities together.  The Amman/Edinburgh connection was filmed and we are hoping to put that up on the WorkJam site as soon it’s edited.”