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.

Apprentices.
India have a lot of youngsters out of work and Germany don’t have enough youths wanting to enter these trades

What do people think needs to change to improve it all ?
Parents to put much effort into parenting the kids they wanted to have. If they need to improve their parenting skills, they need to take steps to do so. There's so much resources available for free on the net about it for a start.

You don't need an EU passport then. As an aside, I remember reading several years ago that only half of the asylum seekers who had come to Germany under Angela Merkel were in work and had been unemployed for five years or more.

Not in my experience though I appreciate my personal circumstances were tricky. I was on UC after I lost my job as I had too much time off work to care for my disabled son.

I was supposed to have one work coach but the reality was it was a random work coach each time which meant that over and over and over again I had to explain my circumstances. I had weekly appointments, they were supposed to be in person but due to my son's needs, they were phone appointments which I also had to explain every time.

I was waiting for DLA to go through which would turn off my working requirements and until that happened, I was pushed to apply for cleaning jobs despite the work coach not able to answer what I was supposed to do with my disabled child.

You used to get more support from the job centre because that was the only resource available. Nowadays, there is tons available online. Free.

Do you really think it will make a difference when graduates with a history of actual jobs are struggling? Nevermind the fact that they would still be NEET while they’re doing it. You’re assuming no one does it, if they did it “officially “ aka registering as self employed, they wouldn’t be NEETS. If they do it cash in hand, they’re still NEETS.

I ended up in my dream job after university by volunteering in the role I wanted. 6 months later the position became vacant and I got the role.

There's a lot to be said for volunteering whilst looking for work.

The point is not whether they still fall under the category or not. The point is that it will do much more good overall than staying up until 2pm whilst being on tiktok every night until 4am.

Because they’ve earned money, kept themselves busy and don’t have huge CV gaps. That in itself is valuable.

Yes I've been criticised on this thread & the situation is complicated but I quite agree, a job, any job is valuable & helps a young person so much. My son is an academically bright lad & I pushed for him to get a weekend job at 16 (no jobs for under 16s in this area- I did look). His A level tutor apparently told him he shouldn't be working as A levels are a full time job! I told him very clearly that school/college does not teach you how to deal with tricky customers, cleaning up peoples mess (he worked in a pub), dealing with crazy colleagues & a change in management & all that goes with it. He didn't drive at the time & I drove him to every shift (a 1 hour round trip) & the learning from this absolutely contributed to where he is now (apprenticeship engineering) despite other people on this thread dismissing what I have said. These young people need lot's of parental support in my view as they do not appear to be the most motivated bunch & I put my son in that category!

*Do you really think it will make a difference when graduates with a history of actual jobs are struggling?
Most of these do end up getting a job with perseverance. Not as quickly as they should but before they have no hope for a career.

Is that an actual fact or a generalisation based on prejudice and not much else?

I would assume it’s common sense.

Why is somebody too special to mow a lawn but other people aren’t too special to have to get up for work to pay their benefits?

Yes, but it’s not a solution. It doesn’t fix any of the systemic issues. Just puts all the responsibility on the young person, just to have society/the government turn around and say “AHA , you’re in this situation because you didn’t go to uni/got a proper job/fucked about with “pretend” jobs like cutting grass.

I agree and Law used to or maybe still is often based on patronage and subject to further fees as you train. I think that with the "useless" degrees oft quoted you mentioned would give an advantage, golf club management for the technical stuff and no doubt the business angle. Similarly media studies would have other elements I did a Social studies Bsc degree that under that name used to be mocked back in the day but if I had been to Oxbridge it would have been called PPE, a degree common amongst the Cabinet.
Apprenticeship are not only small in number but even some of those are useless. Iagree what choice is there?

Common sense tells me that a majority of NEETS aren’t all up until 4 am on tiktok .

As for benefits, nearly half of NEETS aren’t claiming benefits at all. Those who do , around 300k are claiming work seeking benefits and 200k disability benefits.

So? Should lazy young people just do nothing ‘becaus systemic issues’? There are systemic issues around work for a lot of people, doesn’t mean you just sit around all day and refuse to try.

No. She says generally English is used in their offices. German would be considered an advantage but you would still be considered if you had good English.

She does speak a second language but it’s not German.

I’ve just messaged her out of interest and she says the vast majority of people in the department she works at aren’t even Austrian, they are other EU nationals who ended up in Vienna specially because they wanted to work at the UN.

quite right

Show me data on those who sit around all day and refuse to try. Show me data on NEETS who have or don’t have little side gigs. I’ve already posted things that worked well (for years) on other countries, but like i said people don’t want to actually talk or find solutions, they just want to moan how shit everyone else (and their kids) are.

Does she have the advantage of speaking German?

No, she barely speaks a world of it and is trying to learn. She speaks English and Polish.

Born and raised in UK with Polish and Irish parents. Got an Irish passport to give her the opportunities of an EU passport.

Prior to going to Vienna she kept applying for a graduate scheme in the UK police and got rejected every time. It only would’ve paid £30,000.

I don’t know what CS is, but a degree doesn’t need to be ‘micky mouse’ to be virtually useless in the employment market. Take Psychology for example. The subject isn’t micky mouse in itself, but the degree doesn’t qualify you for anything. If you want to become a psychologist, then you need significant further training, which 99.99% of graduates aren’t going to do. So why do we need universities pumping out thousands of psychology students every year?

Part of the problem is that young people have been told that they can just study any subject that they find interesting, and that a degree will be enough to get them a job. That hasn’t been true for a couple of decades now.

I’m not saying that a degree has no value, but the value needs to be considered in the context of 50k plus worth of debt, plus 3 years of lost work experience.

Purely anecdotal but the yp who I know who have got jobs or competitive degree apprenticeships were encouraged by parents to work and/or volunteer as well as study from school age.

When I’m looking at graduate CVs those with just academics are weak compared to those with academics, pt work and volunteering. If we are looking at a cv a thinking what the heck have they done with their time it’s not a good look.

There’s a 14 yr lad on our estate Facebook group valeting cars (he has one of those festival trolleys to move his gear between houses) he seems to be doing well.

Having both makes it even easier.
MFL GCSE wasn’t optional for ours, partly for this reason.