Really interesting report on NEETs. What do you think happens next?

[SomedayIllBeSaturdayNight]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/23/uk-young-people-workplace-anxiety-alan-milburn

Such an interesting report by Alan Millburn in why the UK has so many young NEETs.

' “[Young people] are different, not worse, not lazier, not less intelligent. They have grown up in a digital world that has rewired how they communicate, form relationships and manage stress. They have fewer experiences of workplaces and they present with higher levels of anxiety and depression.”

Does this ring true to you? And what are the next few years going to look like?

I personally can't see any reason for the government not to ban social media for under 16s in this context.

How many of these 1m are 16/17 as I wouldn’t expect them to be in work tbh. The jobs I did at that age don’t really exist now.

I completely agree that schools don't properly prepare children for work. And don't get me started on the utter stupidity of putting all GCSE exams in one month instead of spreading them over a longer period!

Do I think social media can be damaging? Yes

I also question if our education model is suitable.

I think there is a lot more pressure on young people now compared to when I was young. I think there is less hope which is very sad. We haven’t invested in young people & this is the result.

I have a NEET.

she’s physically disabled and also has autism and adhd.

in all honestly even with reasonable adjustments I find it hard to see a workplace taking her one - if she only had one of her disabilities maybe but the combination is very difficult.

she needs wheelchair accessibility (which is a massive issue on it’s own) plus obviously the autism and ADHD.

@Octavia64I totally empathize. My son isn't old enough yet but I cannot envisage him ever being able to get and hold down a job, let alone one that pays enough to live!
I really worry about what happens to this generation, and whether it is a blip, or a downward trend.

I think children are put under stress from a young age. There should be no SATs tests at end of KS1 or 2. Children can do tests when they go to secondary school to see which Sets they go into. Minimum homework at primary as well. Spellings and reading only. Let children enjoy their childhood. Edited to add and learning times tables and being able to do mental arithmetic.

At the same time encourage children to step outside of their comfort zone. It's ok to be anxious about certain things but children should be taught "Feel the fear and do it anyway".

No social media for under 16s. Too much pressure to post stuff for "likes" and too easy for on line bullying.

NEET stands for not in education, employment or training. So a 16/17 year old in school or college isn’t included.

I had two paper rounds, morning and evening, from age 13 alongside twice weekly babysitting. I worked from age 14, washing up in a pub kitchen then moving on to waitressing, bar work and shop work by 18. My DC is 17 and we live in the same rural village I lived in at that age. The bus service has halved and the college bus passes are no longer valid after 5pm or at weekends, but driving lessons have quadrupled in price. Shops don’t offer ‘Saturday jobs’ anymore, as it’s easier and more cost effective to just employ staff on a flexible 16-hours over 7 days basis, which is nigh on impossible to fit round a college course. DC applied to McDonalds in the local town and was told their availability wasn’t flexible enough (offered to work shifts on 3 evenings and 3 full days a week). There are only 2 pubs in the village where in the 90’s there were 5, all employing teens. Nowhere wants under 18’s, citing insurance. It’s difficult even to get work experience placements for them in year 10/11. There are no newspaper deliveries anymore, and even for babysitting people want DBS checks and experience.
it’s no wonder these kids are entering the job market at 18 with no experience and limited options.

GCSEs have always been at the same time of year though. I remember sneezing my way though them donkeys years ago when hay fever really kicked in.

My granddaughter is 17. She has been to every shop in the town she lives, sent out CVs to every organisation she can think of and has been unable to get any response from any of them, regarding part time employment. Her parents both had jobs through college, one in a clothes shop and the other at a supermarket. I’ve seen young people working in supermarkets, but not many these days.

@mymumwouldntapprove I know that. I can’t imagine that the age group represents a large % of the group.

I’ve seen young people working in supermarkets, but not many these days.

Yep, I look around restaurants and supermarkets and there aren’t young people doing the jobs.

Self Checkouts have a lot to answer for in my town. All machines and very few staff.

Businesses rarely hire under 18s these days

Every job has hundreds of applicants.

A lot of jobs advertised don’t actually exist, lots of fake posts, lots of reposted jobs that expired ages ago.

Loads of mums on here have posted about their children spending months applying for as many jobs as they can online and getting nowhere.

It’s not a generation thing.

I think it just is harder now than it was when I was that age.
Not sure what the government can do about it, but surely they have to do something! All these people cannot end up on benefits for life. X

In theory if you are under 18 you are expected to be in employment, education or training (such as an apprenticeship)

in practice while the schools and colleges do work quite hard to make sure there is something on offer for everyone and that on the school side they apply for it there are quite a lot of teens who do drop out,

there are also many many more teens of compulsory school age (up to 16) out of school due to anxiety/contamination OCD/eating disorders etc.

my dc was out of school age 16 and it was mildly helpful in that the nhs did prioritise seeing her (she was later diagnosed with a severe autoimmune disease) as NEETs were at that time bumped up nhs waiting lists.

i imagine these days there are so many NEETs they just stay on the waiting list or the parents go private

That’s the biggest issue now. There are very little opportunities for 16/17 yos to even get a job, much less work their way up into a trade/career/proper job. Add in whatever issues might have caused them to be NEETs to begin with , lack of support , knowledge or funds ( my friends spent hundreds before her DS can even step foot on a building site as a day labourer) and there’s not a lot left.

However, a lot of people will be unaware of the actual situation and just say things like “ I saw an ad in a shop window today, so why are young people unemployed?”.

66k , the rest are in the 18-24 bracket.

Schools don't prepare for work because hardly any employers offer work experience any more.
Back in the 80's we had two weeks of work experience in year 4 (currently year 10). It was easy to get a space.

Now most kids can't get work experience as almost every company is running on the bare minimum of staff and no one has staff who can shadow a teen for a fortnight. The only kids I know who got work experience had masses of contacts or they went with their parents to their place of work. If the government want teens in work experience then they need to employ enough local government staff to support them.

The article describes so many children of friends, so many children described on mn.

The Anxious Generation.

And yet, part of the purpose of GCSEs all crammed together is to see how young people cope under pressure. If we never expose them to pressure - how are they supposed to cope?

I grew up in an era when 'benign neglect' was a fashionable parenting style. We were left to our own devices. Very few cars on the roads, so we played out all the time. No mobile phones - not every home even had a landline either so you couldn't check in with your parents if something went wrong - you had to cope with it. I had a lot of challenging and unpleasant experiences and was determined my children would never have to deal with such difficulties. I helicoptered and fought their battles for them.

Belatedly, I realised this did them no favours. I actually had to explain to DS2 that feeling anxious didn't mean he had an anxiety disorder; feeling very sad didn't mean he was depressed. That it is normal to feel anxious before exams, before a party, an interview; normal to feel sad if you fall out with your friends or don't get picked for a team or split up with your girlfriend. He was genuinely amazed. He had somehow - through school, SM and maybe at home too, picked up the message that we should all feel happy at all times and if we don't, there is something wrong. He did have real porblems with anxiety in his late teens, but he told me the worst part was feeling anxious about feeling anxious. We need to allow teens to cope with difficult things, not shield them. To sit with anxiety or anger or sadness and process it, and learn healthy ways to self soothe.

That’s so interesting about your ds’s perception. I also tried to shield dd from a lot of stuff. And I agree about not necessarily doing our kids any favours. However, she is very vulnerable so I probably needed to parent how I hace.

The pressure in schools is not like the pressure of a workplace.

(ex teacher)

in schools the pressure is to do well academically, to not disrupt classes - so students who sit down shut up and do their work do well. there’s been a lot of movement over the last decade to strict secondaries - silence in the corridors, strict school uniform, only speak when spoken to sort of thing.

workplaces are different.

in the workplace the young person is expected to communicate with colleagues and customers whereas in school they are expected to be quiet if not actually silent a lot of the time.

in the workplace young people are expected to take a certain amount of initiative - not a lot but eg to be able to deal with a difficult customer, to lead a kids party at a leisure centre, to talk to the pub owner where they are doing their gig.

again, in most secondaries this sort of thing is done a lot less than it used to be. There’s fewer extra curriculars, fewer trips, less opportunities for the teens to organise and lead something,

sure, some of those opportunities are still there (d of E, scout leaders etc) but there’s a lot fewer than there used to be and by and large teens are encouraged to sit down shut up and do exactly as the teacher says, which just doesn’t translate well into work.

Thanks @ChalkOutlines so a tiny %

I have a NEET, 2 years in college followed by 9 months of a level 3 apprenticeship, only for the company to lay him off as they can’t afford him. Currently looking for other apprenticeships in the same field, not 1 in the county we live in or 3 adjoining counties. He can’t complete any exams and college won’t keep him without an employer. There are more than 30 students chasing every apprenticeship. The government spout on about investing in apprenticeships, but the rising cost of wages, NI, employer insurance etc, with a downturn in the sector due to cost of living means there are very few local companies who can afford the time, cost and admin associated with an apprentice.

Fully agree here schools are churning out over compliant young people who have had too few opportunities to get a sense of who they are and what they want. They spend so much time sitting silently, following rules, they are even told how to sit and where to look if they are in a school using SLANT.
Lunchbreaks hardly give time to get lunch, breaks are the same, corridors are silent. At the same time they are being told that the GCSEs are going to open doors when really employers know they have been force fed the knowledge to get a pass and want skills that will be useful in the workplace. But of course they haven't been able to secure pt jobs around school and haven't had time for the extra curriculars that give them opportunities to grow into rounded young people.

Education, particularly secondary education, hasn't changed much at all in the last 50 years, whereas the world of work has changed beyond recognition.
I think secondary education needs a total rethink, to make it less focussed on academically able children, and include a variety of pathways to enable all children to flourish. I can't see any government doing anything that bold though, sadly.