Can we discuss the lack of ambition in English youth

[SomeoneCalled]

How can we help English young people to feel more ambitious about their future

By changing the view that success is shameful or ‘uncool’. It should be admired and something aspired to. Except we take the piss out of successful people, tell them they’re a/immoral and tax them to the hilt.

More meaningful discussions about career paths and earning potential would be helpful at an earlier stage than 6th form.

We should also stop accepting poor standards of literacy / numeracy.

Can you say more? I’m not sure who you think doesn’t have the ambition? It’s increasingly hard for new graduates to get jobs with AI taking a lot of what was done by entry level workers, the economy resulting in many hiring freezes, and older people continuing to work longer than before. Sometimes this means they need to take any job, which may not appear from the outside as ‘ambitious’ but is a good stop gap while they continue to apply for jobs in their preferred industry.
I have a 20 year old in uni and a 22 year old (who didn’t go to uni). The 20 year old worked last summer, has an paid internship lined up for this summer and a paid internship in her summer term. She also volunteers and has her LinkedIn up and running and is keen to enhance her CV whenever possible in order to make herself an attractive candidate when she graduates. My son has worked since he was 16, part time while at college and full time since he left college. He has lots of ambition but is working for a very small firm which has very limited chances for advancement, but is struggling to find an appropriate next step. Their friends are all working if not at uni, and if at uni working during the summers. They are certainly getting in to debt to afford uni, and are keen to get good jobs to justify the expense and three years of study, which they know is not guaranteed at all these days.
So who are the youth without ambition? Or are they people working at whatever jobs that are available until an opportunity arises? Or are you suggesting people that go on benefits with no plan to work at all? Perhaps the difficulty in getting on/and lack of apprenticeships, the requirement for a degree - even in an unrelated field - in order to be considered for jobs that were at one time done straight out of school? The high cost of living that means moving out of the family home to areas with more employment opportunities is practically impossible?

Just English young people? Or do you mean British?

By not screwing them over with an awful student loan system and moving the goal posts on repayments.

I think it’s a lot of monkey see, monkey do. My dd is only 10, but ask her what she wants to be when she grows up and she will tell you anything that’s not hard work. Why? Because all the people in her life do min wage jobs, go the bare minimum for the bare minimum and go home again, leave work at work and get by on what they’ve got. We don’t know anyone that holidays abroad every year, don’t know anyone that lives in big houses, shops anywhere more upper class than Asda. So doesn’t really see what sticking in and working hard can achieve. She sees us getting by, not well off but not living off beans on toast, gets new shoes as and when she needs them etc. I am currently back at college trying to better myself and she would rather leave school and work in a factory like her dad. And to a child i see why. He’s paid well enough to live, 2 weeks off at Christmas, 2 weeks off in the summer, takes them to do fun things most weekends.

Ambition for what exactly?

I work with young people and I don’t experience this.

what I do see is how hard things are for them.

Apprenticeships are really difficult to get. Degree apprenticeships involve multiple rounds.

Video interviews are awful , faceless and obviously no interaction or instant feedback.

No rejection letters/ email. (I know this has been the case for decades but it’s rude imo.

Unless you know someone it’s hard to get that first job

The young people I see vary in their aspirations - lots want to go into health care. Nursing, physio, medicine, dental nursing. Others into trades or engineering.

Some do expect that they’ll get an offer of a job or apprenticeship or degree place easily and it’s a shock when they don’t. They require a lot of scaffolding to pick themselves up and try again.

Well, the teenagers that I know, admittedly only a handful, work hard at school, have a part time job and plans for their future. They are charming people; even at home, sometimes. I admire them and wish them well.

If I’m brown and born here then I’m English right?

This . And benefits are too easy to get

The message I gave my dc was that all jobs are hard work and so you may as well get paid well for it or enjoy it.

Pretty bleak view OP. I teach in a secondary comp and see ambition from the kids every day. English kids, British kids, kids from all over the world. If we can give them the opportunities and support they need they will achieve wonderful things.

I have teenagers and work with school kids. They are all pretty ambitious, regardless of background and circumstances. That said, I live in a north London bubble where even the kids in the housing estates have high aspirations because they have more opportunities than if they lived in a former coal town or decaying seaside resort full of homeless B&Bs. It's the adults and the systems that are the problem. Not the lack of ambition.

Obviously. I was merely asking for clarification from the OP if they were just talking about young people in England only, or whether they meant young people from all over the UK.

Ok thanks for clarifying.

That’s not really my experience mine are all in their twenties now but they always wanted to achieve, in differing ways. They all had jobs alongside school but we didn’t give pocket money so that was an incentive I guess. We’ve two at home currently but all have lived independently at times. The eldest (27) owns her home with her partner.
Their friends are similar too.

Reading mumsnet definitely makes it seem like there is a plague of young adults with no life plan and parents who don’t really seem to care. There are so many threads about feckless 19 or 20 year olds.

I don’t know any of those young adults in real life. What I see are teenagers working their asses off to build a life for themselves in an increasingly difficult and depressing world.

yet, you really don’t have to scroll long to start thinking you must be living in a bubble of wonder-teens.

I live in England, but British is the same

Having a well paying job

I am interviewing people for entry into dentistry at the moment. These are highly motivated, very high achieving candidates , with excellent UKCAT scores, extra curricular activities, work experience , charity work and prepared to undergo a demanding interview process. This year 15% of them will gain a place .

I also mentor young dentists and have been a post graduate educator. There is a massive problem with early burn out in many, huge financial pressures due to graduating with upwards of £100,000 debt and many leaving the profession or moving abroad .

However they , at least , can find a job , unlike many recent graduates , even in such fields as engineering , who are competing for jobs in retail and barista work despite their degrees and concomitant debts .

However it is still difficult to advise such ambitious and motivated people to head towards an apprenticeship which will often get you a degree , whilst working and earning.

There are ambitious and motivated youngsters but we are at a difficult juncture where it is not clear where their best way forward is.

You cannot be what you cannot see.

Many kids don't really understand what lawyers, engineers, scientists, consultants etc do if they've never known anyone who does the job. Work experience doesn't really exist in secondary school any more so unless they have a good family network they aren't doing work experience.

My 20 year has spent 4 months applying to a wide range of jobs daily, modifying his CV each time. He has experienced of at least two years in the roles he's going for (shop work and caterering) and has only had 4 reject replies. The rest he just gets no response from.
Its soul destroying.

Broadening our definition of success.

Why does being a high earner have to be the goal? My DD is training to be a nurse and so will never be well paid, but it's certainly more valuable to society than a lot of very well paid jobs.