Your country needs you: those of us with great jobs have a duty to mentor the young

Watching football at the local pub over the last few weeks has given me the chance to chat to a number of delightful teenagers who have just taken their A-levels at the nearby school, the Saffron Walden County High.

As you do, we got talking about what they and their friends are planning to do next. One of them, let’s call him George, is a talented artist and wanted to study graphic design. But, as he confided, why would he pay thousands of pounds to a college for staring at a screen all day? 

Instead, he’s put down the paint brushes and is washing dishes at a pub to see how the pandemic pans out before making new plans. 

Another student, Bella, took criminology as one of her A-levels and had considered either studying law or forensic science at uni but has decided to stay at home and get a job (sort of related to her interests). She’s having her first face-to-face interview this week with a potential employer, having met them only over Zoom.

Another school-leaver, Ben, is working at a local bank but wants to go into investment banking. He reckons that finding a job in the City right now would be tough and doesn’t know how to go about finding a job either. 

Many of their friends, they said, were going ahead with university plans if they get the right grades although some are reconsidering, or hoping to delay entry by a year. They all talked about other students who feel totally lost. 

Some, they report, are deeply depressed about their future prospects and don’t know which way to turn. They all say that while the school (which is terrific, by the way) has been helpful, there has been virtually no pastoral support or careers advice over the last year and no contact with local professionals or business men or women who, pre-pandemic, would give talks at the school about career prospects.. 

None of this comes as a surprise. The pandemic has hurt everyone in some way, in such different respects and to different degrees. But to have spent the last year of school, which should be one of the most thrilling of your life, stuck at home studying online, or when at school, wearing a mask and not being able to meet your friends, must have been particularly daunting. 

While the economy is showing bright signs of recovery, the prospects for school-leavers and many of those who left school last year are looking glum. A recent report by the House of Commons Library found that people between the ages of 16 and 24 are at significant risk of long-term unemployment: nearly one third of all the people in the UK who had been out of work for more than a year were aged between 16 and 24. 

According to the report, the number of young people in employment has fallen by 311,000, an 8 per cent drop over the last year. It’s worse for men, with employment levels falling by 10 per cent and by 6 per cent for women.

Of more concern is the number of young people who have become economically inactive, up by 10 per cent to 263,000.

As of 30 April this year, 594,100 people aged 24 or under had been furloughed, representing 16 per cent of eligible jobs, and they may not hold on to their jobs when furlough ends.  

The number of people aged 18-24 claiming unemployment-related benefits more than doubled from March to May 2020, at the start of the pandemic. Happily, the youth claimant count has fallen slightly, but the number of claimants in May 2021 was still 235,000 higher than in March 2020.

So what’s going on? There are thousands of jobs available: the latest ONS figures show that the number of vacancies in the three months to May 2021 had jumped back up to around 758,000, only 27,000 below the pre-pandemic level.

Lockdown has brought up an old-chestnut, that British school-leavers are not being taught the core subjects and digital skills well enough so they are ill-equipped for the world of work. As Dame Sharon White, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, pointed out again recently, too many of her younger staff lack basic numeracy and digital skills necessary to do their work well.

That is something the schools have got to get to grips with. But there is another bigger issue: school-leavers are not being guided well enough by their teachers, careers advisers or parents into the work they do want to do or into the industries which are desperate for staff such as information, the professions and healthcare.

While most of the school-leavers I spoke to are delaying further education, the national trend suggests that the majority are not being put off studying more. The latest figures show that 173,000 unemployed young people were in full-time education (33 per cent of all unemployed young people) in February-April 2021, down 12,000 from the previous quarter and down slightly from a year before.

Overall, the participation in education or apprenticeships is the highest on record while those aged between 16 and 18 not in education and training – the NEETs – is still one of the lowest on record. Not still too high.

Earlier this year the House of Lords Select Committee on Youth Unemployment launched its call for evidence, inviting the public to share their views on how to help create and protect jobs for the young, and to ensure they are best equipped with the education and skills for today’s labour market.

Chaired by Lord Shipley, the committee wants to find out why the under-25s account for over 60 per cent of the fall in UK employees since before the pandemic. It is asking for the views of the young – and the young unemployed – as well as from business leaders and educationalists to find ways to improve the situation.

The committee will report back in November. It will no doubt be the most worthy investigation, and will come up with a long list of even worthier policy recommendations. Even if the government were to adopt these new ideas, it would take years if not decades to do the heavy lifting, like updating the school syllabus or looking at which economic sectors are thriving and how to direct youngsters into vocational or academic training. 

There’s a bigger question. Should we expect either governments or schools to solve such complex, sensitive issues such as helping youngsters choose the right trade or profession to follow and how to do so? I don’t think so, they have enough to do and aren’t necessarily best equipped to advise – if I had listened to my biology teacher-turned careers adviser once a year, I would not be writing this now.

Here’s an idea. Those of us who are fortunate to have jobs we do love – or those who have recently retired –  should be doing more to help youngsters into the world of work. We should make it our duty to contact a school-leaver or student within our circle of friends and relatives, and offer to mentor them over the next year to make up for the contacts lost during the pandemic.

The tribal network is the missing link. What all the students I spoke to said they had missed the most over the last 16 months was the serendipity of meeting people from other walks of life. It’s often the chance encounters you make while working in a bar or supermarket – or watching football at the pub – that opens horizons you had never imagined. 

My husband, an ex- banker, and now coach, is having a beer with Ben soon to talk about how he can get into the City. And I am planning to persuade George to take up the paint brush again.