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.

Transport is a massive problem in some areas. Getting a driving test has been hugely difficult for some time and lessons/second hand cars are ££££ if you do get a test date/pass.Families often have 2 parents in full time work unable to ferry kids around and public transport is horribly expensive, unreliable or non existant for many outside of London.

If kids don't want to go to Uni there is very little help from schools to do anything else. Graduate apprentiships are more competitive than Oxbridge and unless you have a parent to organise it work experience is non existent. Saturday jobs as we knew them don't exist or are impossible to get. That's not even starting on the costs of employing people who need training and the impacts of AI.

All the people moaning about these 'slackers' need to think what they can do to actually help. I've pushed at my work to take work experience kids from the local comps to give them some experience even though its not really my job and is a bit of a pain to have them shadow me. This is a massive problem that we all need to help solve and I feel sorry for our teenagers I really do.

“Not particularly likeable” stands out here.

This is why being a decent human is a core requirement for a successful life. Scouts, Duke of Edinburgh, sports clubs, age appropriate chores & household responsibilities, volunteering from a young age, proper conversations about tough topics and being allowed independence in the real world builds well rounded children/teens who can enter the adult world.
Sheltering them inside & online does nothing to help them. Nor does pretending that the world will bow down to their feelings / attitude / neurodivergence.

I listed my suggestions below.

This with bells on. The college we work with is sending kids off to uni and they think they are going to be managers on 60k. They’re not - they aren’t clever enough, don’t have the work ethic. But society is pushing them towards it constantly. They’ll be tens of thousands in debt with no way of paying it back.

we need pride in normal jobs. We need people to care for the elderly, drive tractors at 10pm or work in manufacturing.

Uni and grad jobs are not the be all and end all.

My DS would love a job.
He is ND and perfectly capable of working, and really, really wanted to work so had been applying for all manor of minimum wage jobs since leaving school at 19 (unfortunately his final school year was COVID). He had two years of applying for jobs with rejection after rejection. He eventually went into a full blown depression and ended up having a mental breakdown. We are now in a position where he has gone from being employable at 22 to now pretty much unemployable and barely able to look after himself at 25 and we have spent nearly three years experiencing first hand how completely broken the mental health system is.

My DD (NT) is 23 and tried to get a job last year after leaving college and couldn't get anything so she went off to work at a summer camp in USA so that she had something to put on her CV. She came back last September and began looking again for full time work and the best she could get was a job for 15hrs a week (which she took, obvs). She is completely disheartened so she is going back to work another summer in USA.

I have had to give up my professional career so I can support my DS day to day and to get him to medical appointments etc. I am currently looking at going back to work but in cleaning/hospitality/zero contract type jobs and no-one is interested as I don't have any experience in those roles.

It's all a bit of a disaster really.

Oh do give over - none of those things make you likeable or a decent human being . 😆at DofE and expensive clubs making you well rounded hence unis not being the slightest bit interested in either these days.

ND young peoples often have a gazillion times more resilience and experience of real life struggles than those that have had a raft of MC activities provided for them.

All apprenticeships here: https://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship

DC1is 20. Straight A student, just about to graduate from a Russell Group Uni with a first. He applied for over 100 Jobs as a student, had a reply from one, which was word of mouth doing farm labouring.
At University, sent out over 60 applications for his placement year. Got down to the final interviews after 5 rounds of selection in 8 of those and didnt end up with a placement.
He sent out 40+ applications for grad schemes since January. Again, 5 rounds of interviews to end up with 1 offer thankfully...earning the same as farm work but with the cost of living away from home. He has taken it because it is a training scheme and career progression but it is incredibly tough for young people at the moment.

I remember when we had a NEET issue in the early 2000's. Some genius decided to scrap apprenticeships and bring in crippling student debt (nice work, chaps!). Bottom line is people don't want to pay someone for a job they can automate or outsource and they don't want to pay someone they have to teach to do the job.

Everyone wants experience whilst forgetting to gain experience you need to actually give someone a job.

Even that can be tricky. Friend’s kid failed his maths GCSE despite being quite hard working and having ability. Went to college on an electrician course. He is doing great. Passed all his exams , can do the work etc., but can’t advance to next year until he gets a pass in Maths too. You might think well, if he can’t do maths he can’t do the work either , but that’s obviously not the case. Fingers crossed he’s passing, lots of revision, past papers etc. , but that was also the case when he took his GCSEs.

Another friend’s kid , similar situation and he’s looking at being a labourer /maybe gaining an apprenticeship through some family connections . However that meant money and test for CSCS card, money and test for health and safety , sorting and registering for tax etc. all on his own , so he’s “easy” to take on. Passed all of that (despite failed GCSEs again). Luckily, he comes from an environment that is invested enough and can afford to support him with all this.

Not so much directed at the parents on here, but I do wonder about role modelling too. I have a young friend (20’s) who’s parents didn't work, likely grandparents didn't either but died young. She’s got two degrees, many opportunities, but can’t quite get her head around going out to work everyday. She will try to work from home as much as possible and doesn’t really get that you can’t catch up on boxsets in that time, you actually have to work.

Because then you can’t make boorish comments in repsonse.

A lot of entry positions are now taken by immigrants. That’s not to blame immigrants but if entry positions or unqualified positions are being taken by foreign people, there won’t be many left for teens. I don’t really understand if we have so many unemployed why we are allowing so many unskilled people into the country. Baffles the mind the level of immigration (even if it’s gone down, it’s still very high).

Had to choose Daily Mail as it doesn’t have a paywall:

www.dailymail.com/news/article-15853061/Twenty-seven-young-migrants-hired-British-youngster.html

There are no jobs for 18 and overs. If kids left school at 16, like they used to, it would even worse unemployent. Maybe raise the education to 21?

There are no incentives for companies to employ and train young people. No one expected a first job person to be confident and chatty!

The increase in nics caused a stagnation in the jobs market, we are in a recession, and if anyone takes a look at degree apprentoships available, or civil service entry or degree roles, its only minority hires and has been for a few years. So the majority cant even apply and wont ever be able to no matter how much they want to.

The old boys personal network and who you know has never been more important . Hardly progress, is it?

I have a young child (early junior school age). She suffers from dreadful anxiety to the point where she can't talk in school or to anyone she doesn't know well. She gets embarrassed by things that to most would be not an issue at all. She can't take part in anything where others are watching her like sports day or class assemblies. We know there's a problem. Can we get help? Absolutely not! This anxiety is stealing her childhood and I'm terrified it will still her adult life too. She is very intelligent and is capable of great things, but I fear her anxiety will put a stop to that and mean she ends up as a NEET.

Support children like her with their mental health younger, rather than making excuses not too or waiting until they are even more unwell. The result in many cases will be people who are, happier, healthier and able to contribute more to society.

@MightyDandelionEsqhow many 19-25 year olds are applying for care home work and have caring experience? The problem is referring to caring roles as ‘unskilled’. There is a bias amongst recruiters that very young adults might not last or be appropriate for complex care work. I do most of my job going in and out of care homes and rarely see anyone under 25.

Oh would you mind sharing the details, please? I know someone who would be ideal for this!

We’re always told that ‘Brits won’t do it’ but I and a lot of my peers (millennials) did these jobs as our starter jobs as teens/young adults. It’s such a cop out. If you’re forced to make money, you’ll do anything. The snobbery around ‘normal’ jobs really annoys me as not everyone wants to or has the ability to be CEO.

It used to be the norm to have a factory job for 50 years and you could live a semi comfortable life.

Who exactly is still accepting volunteers from a young age?
While Scouts is mostly affordable, it won’t be for everyone. Nevermind DoE (£350 for the expedition only at DDs school) and sports clubs which cost money. Look at all these middle class opportunities she says!

And yet , there was a fairly similar number of NEETS in the 90s.

I’m talking about hospitality, cleaning and retail.

If you had more demand as opposed to supply, you could fight for better compensation for these roles including care work.

It was originally a left leaning political view to limit immigration to give more power to workers for wage negotiations. Unlimited unskilled immigration gives more power to billionaires to suppress wages and then means our taxes pay for top ups.

Most of the apprenticeships - both level 2 and level 3 - my ds with 5 GCSEs including English and maths applied for on this site never replied. I think some of them are made up or ghost jobs or never get taken down. The ones that do are the ones who treat it as a way to keep staffing with sub minimum wage staff to do jobs that really aren’t apprenticeships. The system does not work.
I feel the Alan Milburn report today is a bit going to Rome to find the pipe is Catholic. The problems are known. What are you going to do about it.

Exactly! Let alone the kit. Many families are struggling to get kids through learning to drive let alone expensive extra curriculars. Employers and unis want relevant experience anyway- not Grade 8 violin or DofE organised and paid for by MC parents.

With regard to caring roles, I looked into this recently as there are several care homes in our local area. The only places hiring were the home care agencies for which you need your own car.