Graduates on benefits claiming too sick to work

It’s a hard place to live and harder still if your employer doesn’t have a clue about mental health illnesses and how so many graduates have learned the art of masking.

Anxiety and a diagnosed mental health illness are not the same thing unless the anxiety is uncontrollable and takes over a person's life.

I think the last five or six years have given rise to a lot of young people with anxieties of one kind or another. Lockdowns, social isolation, learning online were all artificial and different ways of living and many did not experience the full school or university experience. Then finding the expectations they were given did not meet with the jobs available must have been disheartening even if they started out with optimism.

Taking a more lowly job than they hoped for but perhaps related to the field of their choice might be a good idea.

Knowing you have a supportive family helps too. Rents are out of proportion to many salaries now and it's not as easy to find a decent rental property as when we were just starting out.

There is no shame in boomeranging back to family if necessary, for a while at least.

Kitty55

Urging pupils to go to university helps governments keep the unemployment figures down. This is hard on lots of students who can’t get the jobs they’ve studied for. Also some people have no intentions of working. It’s so easy for them to claim mental health issues these days. It’s not fair on working people but they don’t care. There’s so much wrong in this country and it’s getting worse. More apprenticeships please.

Yes more apprentiships, traditionally a young person would commit to a 3 yrs apprentiship with one employer learning the craft in stages becoming a basic qualified craftsman.
The problem is that many just dont have the commitment to stay the course, get bored and drop out, leaving the employer short staffed.
If an apprentice is working alonside a crew on a construction site he has to be ready on time every day or he's going to get left behind. Employers want apprentices but its a two way committment, some are successful many are not.

I feel that many of your comments are rather lacking in compassion and rather smug. Mental health is not that straight forward.

ViceVersa

There will always be jobs which require a degree, but I do think that these days, students do seem to be urged to go to university whether they have any clear career pathway in mind or not.
And, while I would never discourage anyone from learning, I do think that there are now a lot of degrees which don't really equip students for life out there in the real world. Some also seem to go for one degree after another, almost in an attempt to avoid having to get a job at the end of it. One girl who went to school with my daughter has three degrees and now works in McDonalds - I'm not knocking anyone who works there, but all that time and effort in getting those degrees does seem a bit of a waste.
And yes, there will always be a need for technical skills - we will always need skilled tradesmen. Not everyone is necessarily cut out for academic life and we should value those trade and technical skills a lot more, I feel.

Yes parents tend to only recognise this route to employment. Alternatives looked down upon and yet often pay so much more in demand/secure. I blame Tony Blair when he wanted as many people as possible to go to university- why?

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sorry this above skipped windows on my computer and is on the wrong thread

CariadAgain

BoadiceaJones

Doodle, I assure you that despite the dumbing down of degrees, there is still a cachet attached to having a "family graduate". Especially if it's the first member of the family to go to uni.

Yep....my erstwhile sister-in-law's FB page contains precisely two things now - as she's censored everything else off. Those things are a photo of her favourite son getting a "degree" and one of her favourite son getting married recently.

His "degree" was in sports management as I recall!!! That made my father livid - as he was more than intelligent enough to go to a genuine university for a genuine degree - but couldnt (because of having been born into a large poor family in the 1930s). I could see just how upset he was to miss out on his degree he genuinely could have got - due to no fault of his own - and then to see one of his grandsons getting one of these so-called ones and flaunting it like it was a real one. Added insult to injury basically....even though he was a typical doting grandparent.

There was no cachet involved at all to that "degree" in the eyes of either my father or myself. But I could see my mother thought there was and I would imagine some of their friends think there is.

With a degree in sports management, your nephew can always take up a PGCE and become a PE teacher. His degree is never wasted.

My BIL, living overseas, is a former sports coach. He taught teenagers martial arts and accompanied them on international competitions overseas representing my country of origin. Lots of pressure with the expectation that his team should bring back gold medals.

If there is a surge of graduates relying on benefits and suffering from mental health, it is due to the state of the economy which is not doing very well right now. Unemployment has risen to 5%, the worst it has ever been since covid. Competition for any jobs is very fierce.

I feel that things started to unravel after the November budget.

When graduate Doctors can’t get jobs either, you know the system is broken. My son took an economics degree and got a job doing economics but a lot of his friends didn’t. This weekend he was advising my grandaughter to look for a degree apprenticeship and avoid the very expensive loans he will have to pay back for most of his working life.

Seriously, do people who bemoan the fact that there are people with degrees who don’t get ‘graduate jobs’ (whatever they are) honestly believe that they should be given one from the bag of jobs hidden behind the filing cabinet?

A degree allows people to compete with other graduates for posts that ask for a degree. The most suitable will get them.

Restricting the number of graduates just pushes more applicants out of the door - the number of jobs considered ‘graduate’ stays the same (ie ones with legal or professional body firm requirements that only graduates will be considered, mostly in traditional professions). Many employers advertise for applicants with degrees, as there are lots of them. The best of those will get the jobs, and the others will have to start lower down and prove themselves. Does that mean those who have degrees have wasted their time by spending three years in a learning environment? Only if education has no value beyond being a ticket to a job. Levelling the playing field so that people from all backgrounds have a chance at careers rather than jobs is fair. Limiting the number of players who even have a chance is not.

If it is the expense that people dislike- you’ll hear no argument from me. Cutting fees (or removing them altogether) would, IMO, be a good thing. As would increasing the number of graduate apprenticeships. But cutting opportunities for young people will never have my support.

Allira

^His 80 IQ meant his job opportunities were severely limited^

Was your brother's IQ tested by an Educational Psychologist? How do you know?

My father made a point of finding out the official IQ scores for three of us - himself, me and my brother. I don't think he dared even try re his wife/my mother......

He'd made sure the three of us got all officially tested. Hence his "What are you DOING?!!!!!!" comment to me about being in office work. I got the message - he disapproved strongly and, in the event, he was right too....poor pay and that type of work did largely start "doing a runner" in my 30's. There were no comments about what type of job/career he thought of other than "better than I or he had had".....and very firm comments he did NOT want me going in the Armed Forces like he had had to do (which basically landed up in family tension until he came out when I was a teenager - as my mother was only interested in armed forces men and did NOT approve one little bit when he came out).

It was a very two-sided family. There was my father and I on one side and my mother and erstwhile brother on the other side.

They're sick? Why? Uni doesn't make people ill and nobody is forced to go. They're on the dole because they can't/won't get a job, not because they're ill. I've seen too many graduates complaining they chat get a job in their required field so are claiming UC, back in my day you took any job that paid and would apply for the job you wanted while working the naff job.
Just because you've got a degree that doesn't mean you're above others, you can work in a pub or supermarket, even be a cleaner... It's all work experience and pays the bills. Not doing that imo is laziness and arrogance.

Lallylou

I feel that many of your comments are rather lacking in compassion and rather smug. Mental health is not that straight forward.

Nothing to do with smug you dont have a clue.
Graduates have to understand the stress levels are going to increase, most are going to start on a short term contract, they will be given targets to achieve. If they dont achieve those targets they will be out, many companies will recruit more than one with the intention of only keeping one long term.

They will be given every chance to achieve but if they are continually off work the contract will not be renewed, even worse many have to do 6 months internship.

Listening to a Radio 4 programme today, apparently there are now 700,000 unemployed graduates in the UK. This indicates that the problem is structural, not personal/the fault of individuals. There are simply not enough job opportunities to go round in the present climate.

My next door neighbours' eldest has a first class honours degree and excellent social skills. Like many of his friends,he had difficulty getting any paid work after graduation.After several months, he was delighted to be offered full time permanent work delivering takeaways. Fortunately, as this does not pay a huge amount, he is able to live at home.
It seems that many opportunities related to his studies - which might have been available to him and his friends several years ago - have now been taken over by A1.

I also know that 60% of last year's new graduates from the nursing degree offered by our nearest teaching hospital could not find paid work in their chosen field.This is shocking, considering how badly we need them. But of course our budgets for health and education are nothing like they should be. I wonder how many of these bright, hard working young people committed to their careers in health service provision have now found new working lives in other countries....?

Apprenticeships of any kind are no guarantee of a job at tge end. A lot are paid off as funding ceases for companies and then new apprentices are started. Only benefit could be no course fees to repay.

LOUISA1523

Even a degree leading to a profession does not guarantee work ....no nursing jobs going for graduates these days

My DD walked straight into a job on graduation.

She was prepared to travel a bit,
She gained some relevant experience during holidays
She worked weekends, showing a work ethic
She kept a record and produced a good CV and her school NRA
She worked at applying for jobs straight away
She bought a new smart suit for interviews
She made friends with recruitment agents
She showed her McD hygiene certificate on her CV

She did not sit around having a summer holiday after graduating; she did not wait for the better salary offer; she looked around for a job that was a step in the right direction without feeling that her excellent degree was enough

Of her graduating year only 3 got jobs straight away with others moaning that there was nothing suitable around

There is a real problem with graduate employment, but some of it is down to AI. Much of the work that was done by junior employees in fields such as law, can now be done by AI searches. This will, of course, lead to problems later on when more complex skills are required and the staff are not there.

4allweknow

Apprenticeships of any kind are no guarantee of a job at tge end. A lot are paid off as funding ceases for companies and then new apprentices are started. Only benefit could be no course fees to repay.

No guarantees, there never was, but at least they have skills and a work record for future employer to see and no debt. AI hasnt caused this but it has made it much worse, this missmatch of too many graduates and too few technicians has been building for decades.

Mamie

There is a real problem with graduate employment, but some of it is down to AI. Much of the work that was done by junior employees in fields such as law, can now be done by AI searches. This will, of course, lead to problems later on when more complex skills are required and the staff are not there.

That's for sure.

I'd have loved to have had the legal info/suggested letters readily available to find on AI when I was having to deal with problematic neighbours - it would have saved me doing a lot of research myself. Might have deterred them from trying it on as much as they did in the first place too.

It's easy to see how it's removing that level of jobs - just for that one type of career.

I've researched my way down through other types of information as well and thought "I could provide an exact specification of work needing doing re my home" too - and that's another type of job there'll be less demand for and so on.

Milest0ne

LOUISA1523

Even a degree leading to a profession does not guarantee work ....no nursing jobs going for graduates these days

Nothing new there. My 2 cousins , now in their 70's and GD 40. and niece were told that there were no jobs at the end of their training.

Doctors are brought in from abroad.
Cheaper I assume.

The same happens in nursing?

I have a first and second degree and had a successful career and was always judged on how well I could cook a Christmas lunch or bake a cake by my relatives! The wives of relatives were hailed as successful as they could cook a good Sunday roast! Now the same people are celebrating being successful for being grandmothers. It took me till I was nearly 60 to stop feeling a failure because cookery did not interest me neither did looking after children.

FranP

LOUISA1523

Even a degree leading to a profession does not guarantee work ....no nursing jobs going for graduates these days

My DD walked straight into a job on graduation.

She was prepared to travel a bit,
She gained some relevant experience during holidays
She worked weekends, showing a work ethic
She kept a record and produced a good CV and her school NRA
She worked at applying for jobs straight away
She bought a new smart suit for interviews
She made friends with recruitment agents
She showed her McD hygiene certificate on her CV

She did not sit around having a summer holiday after graduating; she did not wait for the better salary offer; she looked around for a job that was a step in the right direction without feeling that her excellent degree was enough

Of her graduating year only 3 got jobs straight away with others moaning that there was nothing suitable around

Well, your daughter was lucky. There are graduates who have done all these things and they still have not been able to find a job. Many who go for lesser jobs, despite applying for graduate posts throughout their last year at Uni when they are preparing for their finals, will be told they are "over qualified". Employers don't necessarily want someone who will leave when they get a job they are more qualified for.
I am sure there are people who have done the opposite but the ethos at University seems to be you the things your daughter did and apply like crazy for masses of jobs or you carry on and take your Masters. The career's advice at Universities are really helpful and will check your CV and all the other things you mention. They also will encourage candidates to get feedback. When my son used to ask for feedback, almost without fail he was told that he had done everything well but there were just too many candidates so it was a numbers game. He would also find that he was waiting ages between applying, interviewing and subsequent interviews. It was torturous. He did get a job in the end but I don't kid myself that it was entirely down to him doing all the above you mention. Some of it is down to luck.

FranP

LOUISA1523

Even a degree leading to a profession does not guarantee work ....no nursing jobs going for graduates these days

My DD walked straight into a job on graduation.

She was prepared to travel a bit,
She gained some relevant experience during holidays
She worked weekends, showing a work ethic
She kept a record and produced a good CV and her school NRA
She worked at applying for jobs straight away
She bought a new smart suit for interviews
She made friends with recruitment agents
She showed her McD hygiene certificate on her CV

She did not sit around having a summer holiday after graduating; she did not wait for the better salary offer; she looked around for a job that was a step in the right direction without feeling that her excellent degree was enough

Of her graduating year only 3 got jobs straight away with others moaning that there was nothing suitable around

I wonder how old she us?

My DD obtained a rather lowly job in the area she wanted to work, then six months later a training place with the same firm after her degree but it was no guarantee that, three years later, she was not made redundant with dozens of others. That was because technology had replaced people and this will worsen with the rise of AI.
She took further qualifications and has always worked since.

I am wondering the same thing too.

Often on this forum, people will talk about their experiences in something or other.
Sometimes from decades ago!

With the topic on this forum, even something that happened to someone or other 8 years ago, may not at all reflect now.

fancythat

With the topic on this forum, even something that happened to someone or other 8 years ago, may not at all reflect now.

My anecdote is from 20 years ago and technology, the internet was even then taking over from people.