'Lost generation’: why can’t young people get jobs? What should be done?

I dont know the answers. From what little I do know there seems to be not much money about to employ new people.

We closed our business partly because of the cost of hiring people.
It got too costly, too complicated, too many things to comply with.

We started a new business.
My DH is now a one-man band business.
So so much easier.

Number 5 on your list needs addressing. It's not just higher minimum wage and increased NI which is affecting entry level jobs. As in the Industrial Revolution, technology is changing entry level (unskilled) jobs.

I was reading about a guy from Amazon (the UK boss, I think) who was complaining that the company can't find the staff it needs. He described the kind of workers he needs. The whole Amazon operation is becoming increasingly robotised, so he needs staff who can design systems and maintain the robots, etc. Amazon can't expect anybody else to train them. It needs to do the training itself (it makes enough profit), but needs to liaise with the education system about the skills/qualities it needs from its employees. It's not the only company which relies on the warehouse distribution model, so the companies need to put their heads together and decide what they need from people and the education sector needs to find some way of recruiting people to deliver the skills needed.

Another initiative which (IMO) is desperately needed is to re-introduce the careers service into schools. Young people need realistic advice and realistic goals. While I agree with many others that university isn't the right route for many, too many young people aren't motivated at school and don't gain qualifications and skills to open doors. Work is likely to become increasingly specialised and technical and there are likely to be even fewer opportunities for those without skills.

I think this generation growing up now are far more fragile than previous generations. They suffer from more anxiety and lack confidence in themselves.

I think a lot of the fragility comes fromcurrent child rearing methods.

This is not a criticism of uncaring parents. It is exactly the opposite, we have become too child focussed in the way we bring up children, Best exemplified by the gentle child rearing methods that say you should never say no directly to children but always get them to understand and accept why what they ask is not possible always ask them how they feel and constantly have them at the centre of everything.

The problem is, the adult world they will live in doesn't work like that, there they will meet rejection, criticism and complaint, things that many are unfamiliar with, and it is uite rightly frightening and causes anxiety.

If you look at the animal world, however much small furry animals may be cute and playful. It is play with a purpose to teach them to look after themselves. They will learn to find their own food, and animal parents will push their offspring into coping with an adult world.

We need to think far more about the world that children will live in as adults and prepare them for it. Make them resilient and able to cope with rejection criticism, having difficulties in life and being better able to cope.

I also think much more could be done practically ata school to prepare children for the world of work. Much less obsession with going to university. More concentration on practical skills - bring back woodwork and domestic science.

The above is a brain dump of half thought through ideas. This afternoon a 2 hour car journey took 4 hours. An electronic glitch means I have no in car entertainment and I knew the road, so no need for satnav either. As I inched forward slowly for several hours in nose to tail traffic. All I could is think, and something triggered this current thought process.

So dig in pull my arguments apart. I am not sure I entirely accept them myself, without much further thought.

I would agree about fragility in a sense but I don't think that is their fault. There has been a 'medicalising' of perfectly normal human emotions I think. And often discussed by people who have very little expertise in mental health issues.

Sadly, though this had steadily worsened, it’s not a new phenomenon.

The term “NEET” was first coined in 1994 and here we are all these years later with similar issues.

I think what needs to happen, according to circumstances, is that when 18+ turn up at the jobcentre having made a claim to Universal Credit, so much more needs to be done with them by “work coaches” to actually coach them into sustainable work.

These young people should be coming into jobcentres daily and help given every step of the way, appointments with better trained coaches lasting more than 10 minutes should take place and much closer connections made between job centres and local employers, better grants available to local employers to take on entry level staff and a limit put on how long an 18+ year old can claim benefits, particularly if they’re childless and still living at home with parents.

There need to be the jobs there in the first instance and there should be incentives for those prepared to take jobs and penalties for those not prepared to look for work.

Bring back proper school career officers and look at secondary school curriculum to be more attuned with work.

We closed our business partly because of the cost of hiring people. It got too costly, too complicated, too many things to comply with. I think this has become a significant issue fancythat.

M0nica

I think this generation growing up now are far more fragile than previous generations. They suffer from more anxiety and lack confidence in themselves.

I think a lot of the fragility comes fromcurrent child rearing methods.

This is not a criticism of uncaring parents. It is exactly the opposite, we have become too child focussed in the way we bring up children, Best exemplified by the gentle child rearing methods that say you should never say no directly to children but always get them to understand and accept why what they ask is not possible always ask them how they feel and constantly have them at the centre of everything.

The problem is, the adult world they will live in doesn't work like that, there they will meet rejection, criticism and complaint, things that many are unfamiliar with, and it is uite rightly frightening and causes anxiety.

If you look at the animal world, however much small furry animals may be cute and playful. It is play with a purpose to teach them to look after themselves. They will learn to find their own food, and animal parents will push their offspring into coping with an adult world.

We need to think far more about the world that children will live in as adults and prepare them for it. Make them resilient and able to cope with rejection criticism, having difficulties in life and being better able to cope.

I also think much more could be done practically ata school to prepare children for the world of work. Much less obsession with going to university. More concentration on practical skills - bring back woodwork and domestic science.

The above is a brain dump of half thought through ideas. This afternoon a 2 hour car journey took 4 hours. An electronic glitch means I have no in car entertainment and I knew the road, so no need for satnav either. As I inched forward slowly for several hours in nose to tail traffic. All I could is think, and something triggered this current thought process.

So dig in pull my arguments apart. I am not sure I entirely accept them myself, without much further thought.

I actually agree that “resilience” needs to be taught by both parents and schools.

Failing at things and acceptance that things won’t always go your way is a learning process and helps enormously in adult life.

That isn’t to say those with mental health issues shouldn’t also get the help they need to integrate back into what is a very scary world.

No! Do not bring back woodwork and domestic science! Skills needed in life and in the workplace don't need domestic science and woodwork. They need to be more generic.

Up to the age of 16, children need a single content curriculum with emphasis on skills such as resilience, flexibility, problem solving. Ages 16-18 should be some kind of transition. Some should go into workplace routes with employers and educators working together, while others continue on a traditional academic route. Even the latter should do work experience of some kind.

I think bringing back a careers interview for everyone is a good idea.Difficult job though, the world of work seems to be hard to second-guess these days - and the ways of getting into things are changing.
Just as we can't expect these young people to behave as we did at their age, I also don't think that young people can expect work to be like school either.
eg if you make a mistake at work, you have to try not to do it again. Managers / boss can try to understand what went wrong (more training? Too much asked of them too early?) but young people have to do their best to meet expectations even if they find some of them unappealing.

twaddle

No! Do not bring back woodwork and domestic science! Skills needed in life and in the workplace don't need domestic science and woodwork. They need to be more generic.

Up to the age of 16, children need a single content curriculum with emphasis on skills such as resilience, flexibility, problem solving. Ages 16-18 should be some kind of transition. Some should go into workplace routes with employers and educators working together, while others continue on a traditional academic route. Even the latter should do work experience of some kind.

Yes!

Every school I am.involved with has an identified careers teacher, programmes of work experience, etc, is this not the same elsewhere.