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.

@MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack
The army will be recruiting in increasing numbers shortly.
Not for everyone but good option for some.

What do people think needs to change to improve it all ?

For me the university funding needs an overhaul.
Employers need to be able to show they have attempted to recruit from the UK before recruiting from overseas
Employers need to be ( somehow) taking on Saturday work for those still at school.
The silly recruitment methods should change to CV/Application form and an interview.
Apprenticeships need widening, again with support and dialogue with employers.
Stop raising the pension age. People who years growing up expected to finish work at 60 ( women) are now not getting a state pension until 67.

There will be loads more…. It is up to the policy makers of today, the employers, the educators. Those in positions in organisations that can make a difference. Do they want to do so ?

Young women (well any women!) are prized in the electrical trade, every female spark I know has done very well.

There are two reasons for this, an innate neatness that women seem to have, that leads to (in general) much tidier wiring than us chaps do and of course the fact that elderly and single female customers are often wary (with some justification in some cases) of male tradesmen.

My advice would be to reach out to larger electrical contracting firms in your area and see what they are looking for in terms of initial qualifications and what they are offering in terms of training positions.

The short courses are fine in terms of getting initial qualifications to get started, but to really get on you need to be working with experienced people and getting the hands on knowledge - so absolutely don't spend any money until you have someone willing to support that.

Of course there is a long list of qualifications you can get, but these are accrued slowly over time, I'm 46 and still booking on courses, it's an ever evolving picture. The nice thing is most of the courses you do are short, to the point and get you the knowledge you need to do an extra task quickly (examples being EV chargers, solar panels, etc..)

Good luck.

I believe employers need to advertise a role for a minimum of four weeks and prove that they’ve not had an suitable response to that before they can go ahead and sponsor
However, that is very easily manipulated. If they want a specific person from abroad they will just put all the indigenous population applications in the bin.
And all they advertise the salary so low that nobody who meets the criteria from the UK would apply for it and then you get these poor souls who come over thinking that they can manage on these amounts and they can’t
Well, they do of course, because it’s more money than they’re getting at home

The army only ever increase Recruitment in times of trouble. There’s no need to increase the army if there isn’t imminent threat of war is there ?
Hopefully people join the dots before volunteering their children as Cannon fodder

There are a variety of roles available which are not combat. From Engineering, Health, HR and even Music (for ceremonial duties, and also in ensembles and bands)

From
jobs.army.mod.uk/regular-army/find-a-role/

Although not an electrician myself we use specialist agricultural electricians a lot. And pay a heck of a lot!! They are always struggling to recruit decent people and would probably create an apprenticeship for the right person. Approach these companies!!! Get on the ground locally, drop into the farms and ask who they use. Drop into the commercial units and see who they use.

good luck.

The army is constantly recruiting and a lot of the positions involve teaching you a trade whilst you are there.

I know a young man who left school at 17/18 with no job lined up and didn’t know what he wanted to do so he decided to go into the Army for three years. They taught him a skill and he came out three years later as a qualified vehicle mechanic.

Not for everyone I know (he wasn’t sure it was for him either initially).

Here is a snap shot of a quick ‘indeed’ search I have just done.

Musicians in the army salary £30k plus.

It’s still a military life and absolutely not suitable for everybody.

Thanks @DeftWasp It isn't for me, but for my teenage son, so he's not going to stand out among the other men! I do suspect he'd need someone to take him on before spending money on courses. He is currently doing an NVQ in Engineering at the local college, which was free to take and does include some electrical work. He was looking at mechanical apprenticeships initially but hasn't managed to get one so far. (And privately some people in the trade have told me that recruitment is looking for girls, not boys as part of their diversity requirements). I know he likes the electrical work though.

don’t be a dickhead

How many young people do you think actually want to attend those type of clubs nowadays?
Many of them are happiest sitting around gaming or scrolling through TikTok and wouldn’t be seen dead at a youth club.

I lecture at UoM and have been pushing for mandatory placements / work experience modules for years so I was thrilled to hear the news. It absolutely makes sense for universities to do this although I will add the caveat that it’s easy for Manchester to implement this because there are so many opportunities in the city, ditto London. If you’re aiming to do this in a smaller university city like York, it’s going to be more of a battle and involve more travel at the expense of the student presumably.

I have seen growing anxiety in students, this is an issue. Lots of usual identity crises which is nothing new in this age group but the growth in gender bending is. Companies can’t discriminate but definitely do. If you’ve got someone turning up with purple hair demanding you use they/them and calling themselves some weird name from a Final Fantasy game, it’s a bit more challenging to justify employing that person. This is an extreme example but I have definitely noticed an increase in this and worry about their employability as a result.

AI is obviously the buzzword now too but I think humanities is going to be needed more and will make students more employable as AI steals the classic STEM roles I.e coding. I think we should implement the liberal arts model as in the US and have students learn a wide range of subjects at uni.

Army recruitment also includes layers of applications , physical fitness tests and values sifts. It's similar to fire brigade and police recruitment.

I really dont understand the AI drive in businesses. It annoys customers, means every company is the same and the process kills our planet and any chance the young habmve of getting a job whilst making us all thick.

We have an AI data centre planning going through at the same time huge swathes of our county have no access to rinning water. Does NO ONE think these things through?

Effort and organisation is required in all job applications.
Or should he if you are serious.

From the Polly Toynbee article in the Guardian: "This is “the perfect storm”, he says, for those who lost two years of social and education life in Covid, were unprotected from social media and are now hit by the economic downturn"

Also the description of CVs getting sifted by AI and getting interviewed by Hirevue AI bots - really dystopian horrific processes that 'human resources' departments are putting our young people through these days. I am not surprised young people are struggling to be put mildly. That is really a pandoras box of hell to have opened.

In which country would your dc want to work?

The report shows we do give jobs to o/s kids still even if not EU.

As it should.
It does require some effort on the applicants part and you aren’t guaranteed to be taken on.

I thought it might be useful to just add it in as another suggestion that could well suit some young people. The Army doesn’t need to be a long term commitment (minimum is four years) and it looks very good on a CV 🤷‍♀️

You need coders for AI.

Good luck with finding placements for your 46,000 students. You do realise any work placements will be competed for by every student in the land not just Manchester uni. Most unis already offer courses with a year in industry which many don’t fulfill because it’s impossible to find placements. Students are prepared to move and all are applying for the same placements. Firms are free to take whoever they choose.

well he's certainly on the right track going down the practical engineering route - having that mixed background he might be interested in Mechanical & Electrical, which is in effect heating systems for bigger buildings and mashes up plumbing and electrical. Or maybe (and there is lots of dosh in it) BMS (building management Systems) the controls that link Air Con, heating, Cooling, Hot water & Electricity, again in bigger buildings and draw together Electrical, Plumbing and IT.

Air Con, EV charging, Solar etc are all growth areas - other specialist areas that are always busy are Fire Detection Systems, Intruder Alarms, IT Networking and VOIP phone systems.

Very much agree with this. I recruit paralegals and see every CV no HR or AI sift. We are swamped with applications. Everyone has a law degree. What makes a yp stand out is some customer service work and volunteering. I need people who are reliable, understand basic work etiquette and can deal with people inc members of the public. Not necessarily food or retail, one good candidate had run a little self employed business and volunteered in CAB. Nothing on cv but academics (they are min age 21 or 22) isn’t going to make cut for interview.
I’ve also found interview basics lacking eg being rude to admin lady bringing you to interview room or no answer to a basic team work question.

Because life and the world has changed a lot from when we were young, 30 or so years ago? Or have you not noticed?

How many of our children worked in EU Countries when there was freedom of employment from UK. Not many relative to all 18 to 26 year old. It was restricted to an educated elite who either had very specific skills or valued the experience of living in a different culture. There was no mass migration of young UK workers from Salford or Rochdale or Sunderland to Poland or Germany or Spain to get jobs that has now stopped. Creating the narrative that Brexit is the reason for this issue is just plain wrong and this complete blindness to the swathes of our population who never could or would do this is one of the reasons we had Brexit in the first place. EU passports aren't Gold to 95 percent of the Country.
Ireland is at full employment and desperate for workers at every skill level. 8 no experience required jobs advertised in my town of 800 people suitable for young people today at one of the highest minimum wages in Europe. There is more not advertised. My daughter got a full time job in Galway within 4 days of moving from Dublin where she had a job and started 3 days later. Complete freedom of movement and work in Ireland for UK citizens. Absolutely no impact from Brexit. Common language, easy access back to UK. If freedom of movement was the solution why do I see no UK people working here. Plenty of Polish and other EU and non EU, but no UK.