Young People Are Shaken Not Stirred

Young people are shaken, not stirred in their search for work in a volatile and uncertain world. One million not in education, employment or training was a neat headline that rolled off the tongue to stimulate debate on TVs and vertical screens.

Graduates half-watching the crisis, believing it was not going to happen to them, only to find their lives turned upside down when they searched for graduate and entry-level roles in a competitive jobs market with a declining graduate premium.

At the end of summer the Office for National Statistics, which has been on its own journey of self-discovery after constructive feedback from stakeholders, reported a 20,000 decrease in young people not in education, employment or training. A quarterly improvement that can be built on as the government, employers and education create a path from street to seat.

It’s time to change the headlines about young people and work. I naively visualise a melting pot of young people in pubs on a Friday night, getting wasted and singing the Oasis song Cigarettes and Alcohol: ‘Is it worth the aggravation, to find yourself a job when there's nothing worth working for? It's a crazy situation, but all I need are cigarettes and alcohol.’

That may have worked for a few hours at the turn of the century. But finding out what other people were doing could leave you slumped on your family sofa at midnight looking at your graduation photo through an alcohol haze, stinking of cigarettes even if you never smoked. Falling asleep to Lisa I’Anson voiceover of Brits abroad in Ibiza Uncovered on Sky One.

The next day the hang-xiety struck, a low, gnawing horror that you let your guard down and showed your vulnerability about the difficulties of adolescence and jobhunting. I want to help young people, not knowing if they are more interested in who will be the new James Bond, if Michael Carrick will be sacked or the final Milburn Young People and Work report.

‘You cannot see culture through the lens you grew up with,’ said Richard Osman in The Rest is Entertainment which emphasised young people’s experiences and life skills can make them assets to organisations if they are mentored, coached, trained and given time to find roles that suit them.

I was listening to the Edge Foundation podcast The Milburn Diagnosis which highlighted the adult transference of fear to young people about the difficulties of finding work and what this means for their futures. While I am deliberating over whether I should hyphenate work ready, the podcast guests were asking how young people get work ready if they cannot get work experience or a job.

On April Fool’s Day this year, Dr Nicholas Litsardopoulos, a Lecturer in Strategy and Operations, wrote the youth employment crisis reflects converging forces: cyclical economic uncertainty, structural AI-driven disruption, inadequate skills preparation and a devastating mental health epidemic.

This is one version of the future and you would have to be a fool to ignore what might happen. The risk of condemning an entire generation to diminished prospects and unfulfilled potential sounds like something I would have heard from my disillusioned university tutor when discussing my ambitions.

The House of Commons Transport Committee launched an inquiry specifically into how transport affects young people's ability to access jobs and training, highlighting challenges for those without a driving licence or access to a car, especially in rural, coastal and former industrial areas.

If graduates must demonstrate strong 'human skills' to succeed, what can be done to help them develop these skills before and in work? Don’t forget university is not for everyone. I am looking forward to finding out more about the Leverhulme Trust’s mapping interventions for NEET young people in England.

If you don’t know what NEET stands for, you’ll be pleased to know that curiosity is trending. Find out.

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