Generation Y is experiencing its first recession, with many facing unemployment. But smart organisations recognise the need to keep these future employees engaged

Until recently, my 16-year-old niece wanted to be a journalist. What put her off was a two-week stint of "work experience" at our local newspaper offices. Rather than allowing her to find out how a newspaper operates—shadowing a reporter, watching on-screen page make-up, sitting in on the morning news conference and so on—she spent the time photocopying, filing, making tea and trying not to listen to the banal conversation in the administration department where she had been plonked.

It was a shocking introduction to the world of employment, not to mention an insult to her intelligence. It also shattered her idealism. Never mind putting paid to her journalistic ambitions, it could have turned her off the idea of work entirely.

Young people new to the workplace need to be managed carefully if they are to stand any chance of fulfilling their potential or being productive. Careful management demands time and thought, commodities in short supply in many recession-hit businesses. But companies should look on this time and thought as an investment for the future, because despite the appalling current youth unemployment, the war for talent will soon be raging again.

At a recent conference Wim Kok, former prime minister of the Netherlands, now chairman of the European Employment Taskforce, painted an apocalyptic picture of the implications of rising youth unemployment. He predicted it would create social and political unrest and fuel international and inter-generational tension. The falling birth rate and rising life expectancy places a heavy financial burden on younger generations, who will have to work harder, longer and with less reward in terms of pension provision than their predecessors, he pointed out.

So while companies are having to shed young people now, and put a freeze on recruitment, they—along with governments—need to focus on keeping those under 24 employable and engaged, so that they can call on their skills at short notice when the time comes. Kok concluded that the way to build and sustain the employability and engagement essential for an economically and socially healthy future, is through education, training and well organised work experience.

A recent survey through the IoD's Policy Voice community found that one-third of its members employ people with poor literacy, numeracy and IT skills. There is also criticism that schoolchildren are not taught how to think, but are spoon-fed the nuggets of information that will get them through their exams. While such things are probably no worse than they were 30 years ago, what has changed is the excessive focus on academic qualifications at the expense of vocational qualifications, a shift that serves no one.

There is a group at the bottom of the graduate pack who found it difficult to get jobs even before recession, while others have been forced to accept more humble jobs and wages than they had been led to believe were their due. Meanwhile, companies still suffer from skills shortages in many areas.

The government is trying to redress the balance with its new apprenticeship programmes, which, along with a new internship scheme, support employers when money is tight and help keep young people close to the workplace. Such schemes are potentially powerful development opportunities and a great way for young people to get a foot in the door. But there is a risk that because they are getting this human resource so cheap, employers won't value it, and will squander the talent at their disposal.

The almost mythological status accorded to generation Y derives from a confidence born of growing up, being educated and employed in a sustained period of economic boom. Like most of us, they want to do meaningful work, for people they respect. They want to learn, they want to be employable and they want to lead balanced lives. Unlike previous generations, they had the guts to ask for it, and many workplaces are the better for it.

We alienate such people at our peril. My niece is typical, and I'd far sooner have her on my side than against me.