Schools are ‘pipeline’ to joblessness for many people, says ex-Labour adviser | Economics
Schools have become a “pipeline” into unemployment for a large group of young people in the UK, according to an influential former Labor adviser who called for urgent action to help the “lost generation”.
Peter Hyman, a former adviser to Tony Blair and Keir Starmer, told the Guardian the government should ban social media and introduce radical education reform to tackle the “national scandal” of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet).
Hyman, who has published a major new report that is expected to influence government policy on Neets in the UK, called on ministers to overhaul the system that traps young people in a “rejection economy” where they are failed by the education system, employers and social media companies.
The former headteacher said he was shocked by the sadness and despair felt by school leavers who felt abandoned, ill-equipped and unable to enter the increasingly competitive job market. He added that close to a million people were wrongly classified as “snowflakes” when in fact they were “failed by the government and the state.”
The UK has the third highest proportion of Neet youth among Europe’s richest countries, after a sharp rise to almost one million (the highest in more than a decade).
This is fueling a growing sense of alarm in the government as former Blair-era cabinet minister Alan Milburn prepares to publish a highly anticipated report into the crisis in youth employment next week.
Britain risks facing a “generational problem” worse than the damage done to young people by the 2008 financial crisis, Milburn told MPs on Wednesday.
The proportion of 16-24 year olds who are NEET peaked at 16.8% in 2012, amid rising unemployment following the banking crash. This rate fell back, but has since risen sharply to 12.8% due to a difficult job market and rising mental health problems.
“On the surface, we have a smaller problem. But what I want to tell you is, you have a bigger problem. Because the nature of the problem is more fundamental,” Milburn said.
“It’s a labor market problem, it’s a jobs crisis — but it’s fueled by a health crisis. And those two things are self-reinforcing: there’s a vortex, a spiral. And that has huge consequences.”
The report, Inside the Mind of a Young Youth, argues that Britain must stop blaming young people for a system that is failing them. The book, co-written by researcher Shuab Gamote and the former headteacher, draws on interviews with more than 400 young people across the UK.
The report says Britain’s unemployed youth face “a unique combination of challenges including poverty, Covid, loneliness, social media addiction and economic shock”.
He adds: “We have created conditions that have devastated the economy, locked children up in lockdown, contained them in schools, turned a blind eye to bullying, given them the tools of social media destruction, and then let them drift away.”
Hyman said a seedy education system that focused heavily on passing exams and failed to address bullying and mental health issues left too many young people unskilled or without any insight into potential pathways into education or employment. “I was shocked by the level of aggression and hatred with which these young people talked about school,” he added.
report He also spoke to this “bedroom generation” of young people who spend years “doing nothing”, victims of “a taught and learned helplessness that our system encourages”. They stated that they often feel that they cannot gain the necessary experience even for entry-level jobs, and that they want professional options to be indicated on signs, and they want more work experience and more flexibility from employers.
It was asked whether the government Consultation on social media ban on childrenHyman said a ban should be put in place: “It is clear from our conversations with young people that the government should ban social media for under-16s.”
But he also said youth centers and opportunities should also be provided for young people to connect in real life and learn new skills.
“The young people we talk to are longing for more social connections and places to go,” he said. “There’s no point in saying ‘put down your phone and do something’ if they don’t have anything to do nearby.”
