Why older generations can't blame young people for not having a job
‘The institutions we built to support young people into adulthood are no longer fit for that purpose’
“Don't give up.” The message from former Cabinet minister Alan Milburn to young people struggling to find a job was designed to offer hope, but also conveyed the real sense of despair that many are feeling.
According to his new report, there are currently more than a million 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK who are ‘not in employment, education or training’, and that number could rise to 1.25 million by 2031. Milburn said the situation was “more than an economic crisis, it is a moral one” with the “risk of a lost generation”.
The UK Government-commissioned report highlighted several factors, including Covid, smartphones, the jobs market, and a lack of readiness for work on leaving school. “The institutions we built to support young people into adulthood are no longer fit for that purpose, and... the country has known this for some time,” Milburn said.
And, in words that could apply to many of the country’s problems, he added: “What should have been treated as an urgent national crisis has been absorbed into the background noise of public life. That tolerance is no longer acceptable.”
Valuing further education
The disconnect between what children learn at school and the requirements of the economy must be addressed, especially given the dramatic and growing impact of artificial intelligence.
Similarly, while there is a place for non-vocational courses in higher education, the right balance must be struck. Too many young people have been effectively talked into studying university courses with little relevance to the real world, while the importance of further education has been shamefully downplayed.
In April, Dr Janet Brown, a former chief executive of the Scottish Qualifications Authority, told The Scotsman: “Why do we not value all the things that we all absolutely need on a daily basis, the guy who comes in and fixes your boiler, the guy who's going to install a new heat pump, why don't we value that?”
Young people are suffering not because they are ‘snowflakes’, as some claim, but because of bad decisions taken by previous generations. Now that the dire consequences of those decisions have become obvious, the case for urgent action cannot be denied.
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