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.

It's multifactorial, but what I am often struck by is the parents of NEETs who are funding their lifestyle, allowing them to stay in their room gaming or doomscrolling, who are barely able to make themselves toast or answer a phone, while the parent goes to work to hand over money. It strikes me that the gentle parenting/kids rule the roost approach is actually extremely damaging and harmful.

I want to shake some parents who come and post here in wide-eyed innocence that their 18-year-old son who has school refused for 3 years and spent their time on their playstation while living in filth has not suddenly, at 18, morphed into a decent adult and citizen contributing to society. It's your awful parenting that has created this!

I think banning smartphones and social media under 16 is a good place to start. ANy child not in school under 18 needs an intensive parenting support approach where the parents are told the truth rather than being pandered to i.e. you are damaging your child by letting them go on tiktok all night, you need to bin the phone and all screens and get them doing the pots and gardening. I also think GPs shouldn't be giving sick notes, it's should be a specialist occupational Health service that can separate mild anxiety/autism/adhd and tell those people no, you can't spend you life on benefits, with those who are significantly disabled.

One place we can start on mumsnet is telling all the posters who are allowing their children to rot on screens that they are badly letting their children down and they are to blame!

Fair enough. I've never had a career as such and always worked in minimum wage jobs and am now self employed to work around disabled dc.

But I think my point still stands. Neets are young people doing absolutely nothing so a little side hustle or small business until they get on the career ladder is absolutely worthwhile. Being out of education, training or the job market erodes your social skills and destroys your confidence. Doing something on the side will at least help with confidence amdbpeople skills. I didn't mean 'take in a bit of ironing to pay for your first home'.

The point being , he’s doing it for extra cash not as his main source of income, is he?

Little jobs, cash in hand jobs , etc. aren’t necessarily declared so won’t be counted. You don’t even have to register as self employed if you make less than 1k a year.

Well, at this rate these young people won’t have a career either
Hopefully they won’t have the disabled children, but imagine not having that as a hindrance and getting all the support that comes with disabled children
But still no career
Hardly anything to be aspiring to is it?

Again, I'm not advocating for self-employment as a life choice or end goal. I'm saying self-employment is a good stop gap between finishing education or training and getting a job in their chosen field.

I have an 18yr old and she has a 19yr old boyfriend. They are both in education, at college. I am skilled at C.V. writing, behaviour profiles, competencies etc and quite often am part of a hiring panel, at work.

However, I have written them some strong CV's and job applications. Between them both they have applied to nearing 70 jobs, in the past 2 months. They are either rejected with the following excuse, "You are not the right fit for us", or they get no response at all. I have even made sure they chase up the hiring agent/employer for updates, ask further questions on the job, research the job they are applying for, and had them chase up feedback, which they never ever recieve!

I have had other colleagues go over their C.V. and applications, sourced out 2nd and 3rd opinions from other people, and self-employed family members.

We are utterly at a loss as to what else can be done, other than keep applying. They apply -every day-. While I appreciate not everyone can get the job, especially if there is only 1 position...that isn't always the case.

We have even asked their tutors to take a look at their applications and altered them with feedback. So, trust me when I say their applications are well polished.

They did have jobs at KFC, for the Christmas period, but they were 3 month contracts for Christmas.

I feel like the government need to be working with employer's, funding them, funding apprenticeships via employer's, encouraging them to take on extra staff and open up more positions. The way it is, it's as if the government are penalising the public, people with disabilities, anyone looking for a job, out of work, out of education; instead of looking at the problematic employers and educational institutes for putting barriers and hoops in place. I genuinely am starting to feel like it's employer's and educational systems which are becoming the real brunt of the problem.

Too many parents aren't willing to actually parent, and expect school/the government/"someone else" to do it for them. Children don't magically become adults without a lot of effort in showing them how to do it. I think a lot of people just think it happens on its own. The same as people who nicely behaved dogs on TV or in life and think "that looks nice, I'll buy a dog and it'll be just like that" and then never bother training it and wonder why the dog is dangerous and uncontrollable.

As I said, there is speculation that this might be happening, however , due to not registering as self employed/doing cash in hand wirk, it won’t appear in the data even if it is happening.

ETA there are about 200k 16-24 yos registered as self employed, and therefore not counted as NEETS.

When you say "problematic employers" what do you mean? They "put hoops in place" because they are running a business want to make sure they employ people who will be good workers. It isn't a conspiracy. If there was a glut of hard-working young people with great potential that just needed to be given a chance, a company would be snapping them up and getting one over on their competitors.

I think it’s a real shame for them, must be so demoralising

This is an interesting read and I think the problem is clearly multi-faceted. To add my experience, I work for a large corporate organisation. This organisation has chosen to make redundancies and open a centre in Eastern Europe. We appointed 8 new people recently all 21-25 year old. but whereas all 8 would previously have been in the UK, 5 of the roles were appointed in Eastern Europe instead. Many other large corporates in my field are doing similar, thereby shifting what would have once been graduate jobs in the UK to graduates in cheaper countries.

Im even older, I’ve just turned 50! But the thought of staying in my current job until I retire makes want to chuck myself off a cliff…. I might just go for it anyway after reading your positive response, so thank you.

I'd rather my 18 year old NEET be cutting lawns than sat on his arse doing eff all!

I’m sure we all would
But that’s not what’s being discussed here the options are not sit on arse doing nothing or cut lawns
Some of us were hoping our children might actually, you know have a career. Like what we did.

I second this. I have worked for two large corporates and the first I was made redundant from for this very reason. And it looks like my role now might be going the same way. Outsourcing isn’t new but it certainly isn’t helping the situation.

i am currently helping my 14yr old son to try and find one week of work experience and I’m finding this process demoralising. Written lots of emails and not one reply so far, so goodness knows what he’s thinking the future holds right now. (Just want to clarify my son is sending the emails with my help - so from his email).

He really wants an actual job too (even at 14!) - mostly due to me saying that any money he “earns” from a paying job is his so he can basically do as he pleases with it. Not exactly ideal, but that’s an incentive at least!

Would you force him to register as self employed if he was cutting lawns?

But no 18 year old will walk into a job being a data analyst will they? They will likely need to demonstrate some people skills, work experience, evidencing they can commit to something & turn up on time etc. I'm not advocating for an 18 year old to cut lawns for the rest of their life (unless they want too). I'm very fortunate that my son has an apprenticeship & his interviewer was keen to hear about his part time 2 year pub job (which was at a shitty Hungry Horse) & his work experience. If you've got an 18 year old sat in front of you with eff all work experience what do you think their chances are?

I've not thought about it as he doesn't have to 🤷‍♀️

Well that’s the thing, we’ll never know how many are doing it, or any other cash in hand /gig job (if any) unless they register as self employed. At which point they stop being NEETS (even if they earn very little).

Good point & I've thought about this further, they should register as self employed, I'm guessing they will need insurance & they should be paying tax if they earn enough & then it can go on their C.V. I am not advocating for 18 year olds to be cutting lawns for the rest of their lives, I'm advocating for any work, anywhere being a very useful stepping stone to other things. It seems from reading this thread there are limited jobs (I guess this depends where we live/if we have transport etc) and/or some young people believe they are above certain jobs.