The future challenge for educationHow can we deliver on young people’s ambitions?

Economic context for young people in Britain

There have been significant changes in the youth labour market and in the school-to-work trajectories of young people over the last three decades

There has been a technological transformation of modes of production, accompanied by the decline in unskilled work and the growth of service industry.

There were record rises in youth unemployment in the 1980s and the collapse of the traditional route of early school-leaving and rapid entry into employment

As young people were removed from the labour market they increasingly moved into education and training – currently a third of 18-24 year olds

Many employers have access to a global workforce and can employ people with skills without needing to invest in training

Employment context for young people

Parental income is still the biggest predictor of school attainment at age 11 in the UK.

The Times Higher (29/3/12) reported 1 in 3 graduates working in lower skilled jobs compared with 1 in 4 a year ago

Other young people are ‘bumped down’ into still less remunerated and more insecure jobs and drift in and out of employment.

TUC figures show that between 2002 and 2012 the % of unemployed young people doubled from 10 to 20%

Super rich

Working class

Working/Middle class

Precariat

Middle class

Upper middle

Rich

Ainley 2012

Class structure – hourglass or pear shape

National policy and young people In June 2010 there were significant reductions

in Connexions and EMA was terminated. The prioritisation of an traditionalist academic

curriculum for all An increase in the number of apprenticeships,

mainly contracted out to large employers University tuition fees of up to £9000 pa The introduction of offers of unpaid work

experience for young people Youth Contract giving £2275 to the private

sector to take on unemployed youth

Current situation

In June 2012 there was a fall in the proportion of 16-18 year olds staying on in full-time education for the first time in ten years.

Youth unemployment has become ‘structural’ and permanent

The service economy which has replaced manufacturing has not generated ‘youth jobs’

Recent research by IPPR reports unemployment among young people will reach £1m in 2013

Since 2000 the number of young people out of work for between 6 months and a year has risen by 152%

For better off graduates internships are a way into work

The impact on young people The transition to adulthood has become

longer and more individualised, with educational attainment increasingly important

Lower-achieving young people and those from poorer backgrounds become more likely to experience ‘fractured transitions’,

In January 2013 the Prince’s Youth Trust research on the happiness of young people found 27 per cent in work reported feeling down or depressed “always” or “often” increasing to 48 per cent amongst those who are NEET.

What is the discourse we should use for this?

Is it?Young people today lack sufficient skills. They need to work hard and get good grades and they will then have access to financial security, housing and a range of other material benefits

Or is it?Rather than ‘employer demand for skills’, it is the absence of work that has been the reason for young people staying in full-time education for longer and experiencing a more prolonged transition to adulthood

If there is no change, the precarious nature of employment for our youth may well become a major destabilising factor in our society

What does this mean for education?

there is a growing ‘crisis of legitimacy’ for education as a way forward in young people’s lives

To young people it may feel like running up a down escalator where you have to go faster and faster simply to stand still

The risk is that education functions as a means of social control over youth to enhance existing divisions amongst young people,

But young people may stop believing, “if you work hard you’ll get a good job” or that “the reason you can’t get a job is that you lack skills”.

Questions for schools

How do we prepare young people best for a future in which there is substantially less work for them?

What do young people need to understand about the labour market and the economy to help them make better choices?

How do we equip them with the personal resilience and skills they will need to survive?

How do we help them develop a voice so that they can influence policy in the future?