No advice, but you might find it useful to hear my experience...
My son had his 'lazy sod' stage a bit earlier than yours. He started truanting and stopped working in Y10. He's very bright, but wasn't at all interested in studying. He was predicted 2 Es in his GCSE, but managed to get 5 at grade B/C (without doing any work) including his English and Maths. He picked the 'easy option' after GCSEs and enrolled on an NVQ level 1 bricklaying course last year. I tried telling him he'd find it too easy and he'd hate being bored; but at the time, his desire to have an easy life with lots of free time was stronger than anything else. After 6 weeks, he did indeed get bored, and stopped going to anything other than workshop sessions - and not even all of those. His attendance dropped to 60%, and the course was only 2 days/week to start with - so he was in college less than one day per week on average :( The rest of the time, he hung around with his mates, played on his play-station, and fought with me as I tried to get him to get his act together.
There was no advice or support. Connexions are supposed to fulfil this role (in England anyway) but they were totally useless. They're focussed on keeping young people out of the 'NEET statistics' and so long as they're registered for something, that's good enough for them. They told us my son was on a course, so they couldn't help. When his course finished in early May, they said they couldn't help again until closer to September.
By this summer, my son's confidence had hit rock-bottom and the choices he was making meant his life was pretty off the rails (drugs, arrests, etc.) I was pretty desperate throughout the whole year, as things seemed to get worse and worse, and I only had two choices: throw him out or hang on in there.
When term re-started in September, he said he wasn't going back to college, there was nothing he wanted to do, they wouldn't have him anyway, he wasn't clever enough to study, yada yada... I said (and kept saying all year, really) it was fine if he didn't want to go to college, but he had to dosomething - an apprenticeship or a job - doing nothing was not an option. We had a lot of conflict, because my fear for his future and my need for him to do something useful to contribute to society, whatever that was clashed directly with his lack of confidence and his desire to be a lazy sod.
We got right to the brink. He missed an interview and two enrolment days at college, and wouldn't go job hunting, and didn't go into Connexions to discuss other options though I delivered him to the door three days running. Finally I set a deadline, and on the Friday of the first week in Sept, I told him that if he wasn't in college or in a job or apprenticeship by Monday evening, I would throw him out. IN, I emphasised, not just 'applying for'. He complained that that wasn't enough time. I pointed out that he'd had all summer, and the reason he only had 3 days now was that he'd left it right to the last possible moment.
We got to Monday evening - college enrolment was 5-7pm - and he said he wasn't going to go. I said that was fine, and I'd pack his bags if he wasn't enrolled in a course by the end of the evening. I stayed calm. And somewhere in the middle of all his chuntering, I realised that although he was saying he wasn't gonna do it, I couldn't make him, blah blah blah, he was in fact getting ready. He actually told me he wasn't going while he was climbing into the car! He moaned all the way to town and we sat outside for 15 mins while he said he just couldn't, and I said of course he could. Finally he went in!
When he came out (2 hours later) he was about 4 inches taller He had a place on the level 3 BTEC course he'd wanted to do, but he hadn't believed they'd have/want him. "I was really scared you know", he said, "I wasn't putting it on".
He has now done a month, and he has been every day, and he is loving it. It's a bit of a shock to the system (to say the least) but he's rising to the challenge. And he is much, much, much happier than he has been for at least three years. And I am sooooooooooooooooo relieved... Though not counting chickens quite yet!
I have drawn a few conclusions from all this that may or may not ring true to you - but they're all things I wish I'd worked out sooner, so maybe they'll be useful:
- School really doesn't suit some kids, mostly the ones who need to do practical stuff - 'active learners'.
- It's a bloody stupid time to try to get people to study, work hard and concentrate anyway! Teenagers are full of energy and we expect them to sit still?! Their natural body clocks mean they're awake half the night but we still expect them to get up at 7am?! Seriously?!
- Some kids have their confidence and self-belief badly damaged but trying and failing to do what's expected of them :(
- They respond in different ways, but many of they respond by not bothering to try very hard. If you're not going to do very well (and you don't realise that's because the curriculum doesn't suit you) it's easier to fail if you can pretend that it's because you didn't even try.
- Some of them get very angry and disengaged.
- Some of them get very afraid about their futures (they probably pick this up from adults) but most of them wouldn't ever admit it.
- Some of them have to hit the bottom before they take control of their lives again.
- There is nothing you can do to 'make' them do anything. Literally nothing. They have to do it. Any steps they take because you force them will only be temporary. Bribes will only work if they basically want to do that thing anyway.
- From a parent's point of view, it's incredibly stressful. It can take a long time to work out where your 'bottom line' is. It often seems to be below wherever you thought it was! Any ultimatums you make need to reflect your bottom line - what you absolutely cannot stand - not what you think they 'should' or 'shouldn't do.
- Loads and loads of kids have a 'wasted' year some time between 14 and 19. Most of them pick it up again at some point. It's never really too late.
Oops, I've gone on longer than I meant to! Sorry. Hope some of it is useful!