Young talent - Or the lack thereof...

No let me rephrase that, there is definitely talent out there but perhaps the 'lack' part comes in the form of hard working, attention to detail, well skilled talented young people.

The recruitment process

This is not news for me as I spend a large part of my time training young journalists as well as in the corporate field and I often feel as though I'm hitting a brick wall. The talk this morning turned to:

• Where are we going wrong in our recruitment process?

• Why aren't they coming out of tertiary institutions with more hands on ability?

• How do we deal with this social media generation?

One person recounted how when he contacted a new young employee during her lunch hour, she informed him that why should she come back to the office to sort something out? Didn't he know it was her lunch hour???

By the way this is a company young talent should be giving their right arms to get into. When he then quietly explained to her that in this industry working 9 to 5 wasn't really part of the deal she went home, thought about it, came back the next day and gave in her notice!!!

In terms of the recruitment process what I find is that no matter how carefully worked out our entry tests are they seem to pass with flying colours. We then get excited that we have found a great employee - only to find once they start that enthusiasm they bought to the interview has flown out the window.

Poor hands-on skills

The work we get is mediocre in the extreme. What's even more frustrating is that despite giving them ongoing training and showing them their mistakes, the sloppy work continues!

This of course doesn't stop them wanting to be promoted within the first month or two. In a newsroom situation for instance they all want to be the reporter that gets sent out to cover exciting trials or visits by overseas music stars. What they haven't factored in here is the years of experience and slog that those top journos put in to get where they are today. They want it now! And for many if they don't get it, they'll simply leave and move on to the next job...

Why though are they coming out of tertiary education with such poor hands-on skills? This isn't too difficult to work out. They generally get three or four years of solid theory, with the occasional week or two of work experience.

This just doesn't crack it. As a former lecturer I always told my students the real learning begins the day you start work. And I remember only too well just how many mistakes I made during my first few years as a journalist. If it wasn't for very patient editors and producers I definitely wouldn't be where I am now.

Practical experience

So perhaps what we need to look at is changing the way such courses as communications, public relations and journalism in particular are run, allowing for more practical experience and real skills learning.

Having said that how do you teach enthusiasm and passion?

Many clients bemoan the fact that young people's standard of English (including English first language speakers) reads like sms, Facebook and horror of horrors - Twitter talk. This is reality but when they start sending out emails such as "We wd like 2 tk 2 u soon' it's a bit scary!

I have the problem - does anyone have the answer???