A generation of young people has been let down by a lack of political will, according to readers responding to Alan Milburn's report on the rise of young people not in education, employment or training.
Dismantled Careers Services
In considering the release of Alan Milburn's report, we need to take into account the support structures in the home nations of the UK, writes Prof Pete Robertson of Edinburgh Napier University. In the 1970s, 80s and 90s, UK governments had an effective tool to support young people to avoid unemployment: careers services run by local authorities. In the early 2000s, the New Labour government that Milburn was a part of replaced this with Connexions, a more generic advice service for youth in England, not exclusively focused on supporting work and learning.
Under the coalition government, Michael Gove disbanded this entirely. He passed responsibility for career guidance to schools, crucially with no allocated budget to support this work. Essentially, careers services for young people were dismantled. As a result, support for those who are unemployed after leaving school is patchy and incoherent. It depends on what local authorities are able to do, with limited input from the National Careers Service, which will soon be folded into the Department for Work and Pensions' jobcentre network.
The administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland did not make this strategic error. They have coherent careers services that allow a seamless approach from school into young adulthood. They have retained an effective policy lever to manage youth unemployment.
History of Missed Opportunities
Sally Tomlinson, emeritus professor at Goldsmiths, University of London, notes that Alan Milburn's report has a history. In 2004 Tony Blair dismissed Mike Tomlinson's excellent suggestion that all young people aged 14 to 19 should be educated towards a final diploma in three areas: academic, vocational, and work experience. The suggestion was dismissed, and a 2009 House of Commons report lamented the nearly 1 million youngsters then not in employment or education. The children, schools and families committee and others pointed to the insult of calling these young people 'Neets'.
Tomlinson interviewed administrators, teachers and school leaders in five countries from 2010 to 2014, and found other countries amazed at the UK's outdated preparation of the next generation of young people, who all deserved more than any government has been willing to give.
Collapsed Social Contract
Jacob Bonwitt from Garsington, Oxfordshire, argues that gen Z were asked to make massive sacrifices to protect a generation that has since repeatedly shown its disdain for them. 'Why go to work if you can't even dream of a life like your grandparents had? When employers see you as lower-value human capital? When political parties are keen to promote AI but speak little of education? When the best one can hope for, outside the upper middle classes and the lottery winners of football, screen and social media, is the psychological torture of what David Graeber described as bullshit jobs?'
He adds: 'The social contract for millennials was failing. For gen Z, it has collapsed. Children, and by extension parents, should be the most important people in a forward-looking society. Instead they are exploited, criminalised and derided. Meanwhile, governments pander to their grandparents. We must do more for the future of this nation.'
