This country as gone into terminal decline

[Carmes]

I have 2 young children in school.

I am becoming more and more anxious about what sort of jobs / careers they will have open to them.

I work for very large company with 10,000s of employees.

20 years ago whe I started work here there would be 100s of entry level jobs at any given time. These are jobs that don't require experience or a degree, ideal for a school leaver, and I know dozens of people who started their career this way.

Now there are maybe 10 jobs that would fit the same criteria.so. All the jobs have been offshored.
Now are the vacancies are for very specific technical skill set or experience.

This doesn't bode well for someone who has left school at 18'or even university.

A lot of entry level jobs are being rebranded as apprenticeships now... a bullshit level 2 qualification that was never needed anyway, done full time over a year for about £4ph.

I believe it's rising levels of affluence that cause falls in population, not educating women (despite recent cost of living crisis). But the population is increasing in the UK due to immigration and therefore putting pressure on public infrastructure (to the tune of billions) ... but anyone who dares to say it is silenced/cancelled etc. However immigration is only one factor of many. Recommend reading Professor Matt Goodwin’s Substack for a very frank and clear analysis of why we're in managed decline

The country is short of plumbers. Electricians, builders - well paying jobs but looked down on these days

@jackstini Blairs government did this. Education for all. What it actually did was create a two tier system. Colleges of further and higher education and polytechnics were renamed as 'Universities' and their educational value and reputation just did not cut it as a degree worth having when compared to the older institutions UCL, LSE, Bristol, Exeter... etc. Unfortunately It still matters where you were educated and there are so many with these second rate degrees ( as seen through an employers eyes) from second rate establishments.

I can see now that a lot of things have been over regulated, and have just ended up making things worse.
Like having to have certain GCSE grades to do apprenticeships, and having more restrictions on becoming self employed.

I think younger people struggle more than they used to. As far as the U.K. is concerned, Brexit, the pandemic and 14 years of Tory incompetence and corruption have caused it. Now Starmer has to sort it out - what a job. Europe generally is in the same boat; it’ll get better - economies fluctuate over periods of time. You get the good, and the not so good.

It’s the attitude I can’t stand. I’ve just left the hospital in my city, visiting a friend. As I walked through the main concourse, there were 2 kids pushing/racing around in a hospital wheelchair. WTF, why do parents think this is acceptable?

Disagree, with your degrees. Honestly look at indeed or any other job site.

Ditto!

Are you seriously recommending this GB news bloke as an educator?!
https://x.com/GoodwinMJ?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Admittedly, I have not read all his substacks but I've had a quick look at his twitter. I've heard it all 100 times over from similar blokes and women. There is nothing original or intelligent about it and he misses so, so much.
There are many excellent, highly educated and intelligent thinkers out there. He is most certainly not one of them.

Polytechnics became universities in 1992 under John Major's government, nothing to do with Tony Blair.

He is highly educated and intelligent, so I refer to my previous statement "but anyone who dares to say it is silenced/cancelled etc."

No one is silencing anyone unless you think that someone with the temerity to disagree with your assessment of this man is trying to silence you or him. I even linked to his twitter so that everyone can have a look! Why are some people so oddly sensitive nowadays?

He has some degrees from some relatively mediocre institutions and doesn't appear to say anything original so I remain to be convinced that he is highly educated and intelligent. As I said, there are some truly excellent thinkers out there but he is not one of them.

there's a very real issue on social media if a person questions the accepted orthodoxy; it gets you cancelled. It happened to a relative. A misunderstanding explodes into depth bombing a young person's life and career.

So are only Oxbridge educated people who appear in comics such as The Guardian entitled to an opinion?

We have too many trained scroungers & too many people who have never worker and have no intention of working & too many illegal immigrants who the state is also funding.

We have billions of people struggling on the bread line , we have elderly sitting in the cold & young without a future, working families struggling......

Changes need to be made in the UK

You are doing it again. That sensitive thing.
'So are only Oxbridge educated people who appear in comics such as The Guardian entitled to an opinion?'
These are your words, not mine.
I disagree that this man is intelligent, original or to be recommended as an educator. There is no need to take offence because someone disagrees with you.

Damn right!
Not everyone needs or wants a career. Some people are happy to go to work, do their shift, get paid, and not give a shiny shit about it the rest of the time. Some people can cope on not much, and are happy with an easier life.
And those people should still be paid enough to do that. The whole attitude that people who are on NMW have not tried hard enough, or lack enthusiasm, can die a death. NMW should be enough to live on, and have some luxuries too.
The people on low wages... they are the ones who were still out working during Covid. The were invaluable then, so the WFH bunch could have their many Amazon deliveries.
Yet when someone on a low wage complains how much things cost now... THEY are the ones that are blamed... instead of the cost of living crisis.

Exactly. I never wanted a career, I worked to pay the bills and enjoy my life, Living to work is the very definition of no life at all to me. Obviously some people find gratification in that, but there is no reason we all should have to. Career snobs are the most boring people on earth!

Yup. I have a job that pays a decent salary abd has a shift pattern that facilitates my many interests abd family duties outside work. Work pays the bills, nothing more.

Not taking offence at all, there needs to be more free and open debate, uncensored by legacy media. Read his substack before you dismiss him

I'm sure those who have worked in bars in Australia and China will be far more interesting people to talk to than your girls in their privileged, stifled, little bubble.

Even the children of the wealthy here tend to work in bars, shops etc. when they want/need to earn a little extra money, and they become more rounded people in the process. Thankfully we don't encounter many people with your attitude.

Yep, I used to have a job that paid the bills (and my hobbies and social life) too.

But we would now be blamed for not having any ambition when we cant spend as we used to, when the cost of living crisis is the real culprit.