Can we talk about NEETs?

[MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack]

Sorry if there's a thread already and I've missed it. But I want to talk about NEETs.

Apparently, we are potentially going to have 1.25million young people not in employment, education or training by the early 2030s. This is quite an alarming number, and it feels like we're failing an entire generation - both the NEETs themselves, who don't seem to have very much going on in their lives that might give them a sense of satisfaction or achievement, but also their working peers who will presumably end up having to support them via the tax system.

I really don't want this to be a thread with lots of judgement or criticism of these young people - it seems to me that we must have failed them somehow as a society. I also want to steer clear of party politics if we can. But I really want to understand why we have so many young people in this position right now.

Does anyone have a child in this situation who would be willing to share why they find themselves in this position? What are the barriers to them studying or getting at least a part time job? Are they happy with how things are right now? Are they trying to change their situation? What do they actually do all day? Are they surrounded by friends who are in the same position? What do they do about money? And what do you feel about the whole situation as a parent?

If anyone is willing to share, I really hope we can avoid a pile-on in which the young people and/or their parents are subjected to a character assassination. I would like an honest and frank exchange of views and experiences because I do genuinely want to understand the root causes of this issue, but if it descends into blame and fingerpointing, then the whole conversation will get derailed.

For full disclosure, I do have a dc in the middle of the 16-24 age group, but neither she nor any of her friends fall into this category.

My DH had a similar building site job when he was a student. Has wonderful tales to tell.

The building sites around me don't employ native English workers now. The local boy or girl wouldn't get a job.

We had massive house building around me for the past 10+ years and we are one of the areas of England where it is continuing albeit in a smaller way.

All of the building site workers near me were non-english. Even now after Brexit when local shops and flats were built in the last 2 years they were all continental europeans. Did a great job and very quick.

My son is 26 ,he's permanently signed of work sick .he has high support needs autism...we were also told he has learning disabilities,but I don't know if that's on his doctor's notes or not
He struggles to wash and dress himself,and will never live independently.
I'm worried sick what happens to him when I die .
Especially as everyone seems to think benefits are to high .
He receives the full amount for a single male for UC ,put together with his PIP ,it is not enough money for him to live on independently.he is entitled to the mobility scheme,but he wouldn't be able to pay his bills living independently and have the motability scheme,so we haven't looked in to that
He should be entitled to a flat through the council,but they are to expensive where we live ,we have a plan in place with social services for a home carer to come in daily to help him
But I can't make the finances work to get him set up in a flat .
Obviously we could subside him,but what happens when we die ...if we leave him the extra money in our will to subsidise him ,he will loose his benefits if he goes over a certain amount of savings and he wouldn't be able to manage to reapply for the benefits if they were stopped.
I know this isn't the type of person the op is aiming the thread at
But I just wanted to share his story about the full benefits.. because people think it's to much money,but I genuinely can't make it financially work for him to live independently...I can't imagine what other single disabled people,living alone on full benefits are having to go without to manage .

It varies by region but I think demographic changes have played a significant role in the availability of part-time entry-level work as a lot of jobs that used to be filled by college and uni-aged teens and young adults are more often filled by migrant workers (this is purely an observation, not a froth about immigration)

Whatever the cause, it won't get solved because the people in charge of finding a solution are probably still stuck in the mindset "well, at 16, I...[enter smug boast here]"

Congratulations, pat yourself on the back for something you did 20, 30, 40+ years ago. The world's rather moved on since then, and if you can't recognise, you're either willfully ignorant or just plain stupid.

Yesss! No one cares that you peaked at 16!!!

This too. Alan Milburn seems to fit this.

Why? Have you found inconsistencies in his report?

Agreed.

I a terribly worried about my children's (17, 19, 21) prospects in the UK, even though they're all bright and hard-working. My oldest is almost finished with a good engineering degree and couldn't get a look in at ANY of the apprenticeships for the 'advertised' apprenticeship year as part of the degree, he applied for, nor could any of his friends. So no work experience in the field, graduating into an awful economy for young people. It's terrifying, especially in a country that has pushed hard for more young people to go into engineering and the sciences and have done everything that has been asked of them academically and volunteering-wise and part time job wise. Where the fuck are the professional jobs for them? Especially with the student loans hanging over their heads ... imposed by the people who got their uni degrees paid for by us, the taxpayers.

I’m going to list 3 different examples of people in the 18-24 age range and how we are all getting on, I’m one of the examples.

I’m almost 24. I dropped out of a healthcare-related degree 2 years in about 1 year ago as I realised I didn’t want to work for the NHS as all of my placements were utter shitshows of disorganisation, toxic workplace politics, bullying and downright dangerous practices. I realised I was trapping myself into working for a failing, underfunded organisation and I realised I’d rather try and get into corporate 9-5. Within a month of dropping out I’d found a job. I applied for every full-time office job going. The job I found was a customer service call centre agent for a major car insurance company. It was in the local city centre and 1 hour away on a bus which wasn’t too bad. It’s also hybrid, 2 days from home 3 days in office. Call centre is many people’s worst nightmare and people warned me not to apply but I have thrived there. Less than I year in I have been promoted to a quality assurance role which is massively less stressful as it doesn’t involve direct customer contact, it has a pay rise and involves more autonomy and is genuinely interesting work.

I’m now pregnant and have already negotiated a flexible working arrangement for when I go back after mat leave and I plan to be in that company for years to come and progress my career. I don’t doubt that being on the outskirts of a city centre has helped but I also feel many just wouldn’t have given the call centre job a chance and would’ve therefore missed out on what has turned out to be a fab company with great career progression. I want to give myself credit for this but then I hear about all these NEETS and how hard it is for them and then feel as though I can’t celebrate my achievements and maybe I’ve just been lucky.

My niece and nephew are 21 and 19 and they are a different story. Nephew was doing a degree in London and was a part-time shift leader at a supermarket and was doing very well. They became depressed (this coincided with them coming out as transgender) and moved back to their mum and dad’s and have been unemployed claiming benefits ever since. They seem to be fully focused on their transition and don’t seem to be able to cope with other things at the moment. They did get a job at a fast food restaurant and lasted 2 days before deciding they “aren’t fit to work”. Their whole life is focused around medical appointments and getting to the next stage of their transition.

Niece did a vocational course at college in construction and completed it but hasn’t been compelled to find work since. She does have autism which makes things harder but she absolutely smashed her college course and her teachers were hopeful she’d find an apprenticeship but she just never really looked. I think she is following in her brother’s foot steps.

I’m not denying it’s getting tough out there for young people but I think those who are genuinely capable will eventually find their way even if it takes a bit of trial and error.

Anyway, if is based in Merseyside or knows of a young person struggling for work in Merseyside then drop me a DM and I will let you know what company took me on. There are always hiring for the call centre and once you are in and have served a year on the phones they will try and progress you if you’ve shown enthusiasm and skill

As Kemi B said

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch: "Labour entered government and hiked employers national insurance, hiked the minimum wage, loaded new regulations on businesses. The result? Employers stopped hiring young people"

What Labour have done to young people and others, is a disgrace.

A family member used to work with NEETs about 15y ago. He acted as a coach/mentor and got them into education, training or work. He and his colleagues no longer do this as the funding was cut for this and for similar projects all over the country. If governments cut and cut youth services, then this is the result.

It probably is,
Think about it, what on earth causes an otherwise completely healthy person, healthy in mind and body that is to sit in the house 24/7 with zero motivation?
How is that normal?
At 18, I was desperate to live life!

While all of that IS shit, labour came into power to 900k NEETs already existing. Let’s not pretend like it was all sunshine and rainbows or that is a new problem.

Lack of jobs and therefore money.

So many issues seem to be colliding at once here and I do worry about my DCs who are currently in secondary school.

• You have ND teens and young adults who perhaps want jobs but want or need a certain type of working environment that just doesn't really exist for the vast majority of entry-level jobs. So until that changes (and it will only change either very slowly or in very small ways) then many of these teens will continue to live on benefits.

• You have graduates unable to get jobs for a variety of reasons (and then going on to do MAs or PHDs and being overqualified and reluctant to do the basic less appealing jobs because they feel they should be going straight into graduate level jobs, sometimes with limited or no actual work experience) or even being denied basic jobs because of said lack of actual experience. Perhaps going forward there needs to be a lot more thought given to how your degree will lead to an actual job. (eg teaching, medicine, architecture etc...)

• We don't trust our teens enough either - what's happened to getting teens to babysit, pet sit, mow lawns etc.. in the summer months. This is very common in other countries and teens can learn skills and earn money (and get real pleasure from earning their own money at a young age and therefore understand the value of work, which I do think is being lost). But I don't see evidence of that round where I live. I would happily pay a young lad or girl to wash my car or do some gardening, but I think I might be a minority here.

It's a very tough environment for our young people in the UK and I wouldn't want to be trying to enter the workplace now. It will take a huge effort and co-operation of both government and business to change it..

The world has changed significantly in the last 10 -15 years, but policies and expectations still seem to be from the mid-2000s. (It's completely unsustainable to pay for more and more working age young people to stay at home every year, while we have a growing ageing population - who's going to be paying for the pensions in 15 years' time?? Not enough people at this rate).

I'm encouraging DS14 to do a reffing course, and then in a year apply to be a youth coach. I'm doing my best to anticipate what might give him even a small advantage when it comes to looking for more long-term employment.

I think it helps massively (at least I'm hoping it will) if your kids have a skill that is not linked to academic performance eg sport, dance, skiing, fluent in a second language etc. But again, that is down to a level of privilege that not all kids have.

Labour have also cut the Adult Skills budget by 6% quietly and with not a peep from all their backbenchers who were up in arms about benefit cuts. College courses are having to close as a result. Places where young people who don't want to or can't go to university could go to learn a trade or improve their qualifications.

Learned Helplessness?

They're desperate to live life too aren't they? it's not through lack of wanting to work that those young people aren't in work.

Unbelievable 🙁

Why is it unbelievable? They tried to cut benefits but were met with fierce resistance. If one bill goes up, another must come down.

Indeed my 19 year son training course finished two weeks , he upstsirs right now appllying for any job
Hes desperate to work.

Learned helplessness? Have you read the report? It doesn't blame learned helplessness or lack of desire to live life. In fact it says this:

" Overwhelmingly they want to work. In a survey carried out for this review, 84% of NEET young people said they want to find a job, education or training. I do not accept the caricature of a generation that is not interested in employment. I do not accept that mental health is simply an excuse. Nor do I accept that the answer is to tell young people who are struggling simply to try harder. These are myths. Sometimes cruel ones. Young people are not to blame. Institutions that should have provided opportunities to them are the ones that have failed."

My dd graduated 2 years ago. She is working in a bar. And she's one of the luckier ones as she can stay in the family home as I can afford to keep her. A lot of people can't.

Because the internet and smartphones now give them their dopamine. They don’t need sex, clubbing or other in-person thrills.

Fierce resistance from their deluded back benches. No idea how to run this country. and we're stuck with them for another 3 years.