Schools have become a \u201cpipeline\u201d to worklessness for a large cohort of young people in the UK, according to an influential former Labour adviser who has called for urgent action to help a \u201clost generation\u201d.<\/p>\n
Peter Hyman, a former adviser to Tony Blair and Keir Starmer, told the Guardian the government should ban social media and enact radical education reform to tackle the \u201cnational scandal\u201d of young people who are not in education, employment or training (Neet).<\/p>\n
Launching a major new report which is expected to influence government policy on Neets in the UK, Hyman called on ministers to overhaul a system that trapped the young in a \u201crejection economy\u201d where they were being failed by the education system, employers and social media companies.<\/p>\n
The former headteacher said he was shocked at the sadness and despair experienced by school leavers who felt abandoned, ill-equipped and unable to enter an increasingly competitive jobs market. He added that close to one million were being wrongly classed as \u201csnowflakes\u201d, when in fact they were being \u201cfailed by government and the state\u201d.<\/p>\n
The UK has the third-highest rate of young people who are Neet among Europe\u2019s richest countries<\/a>, after a sharp rise to almost one million \u2013 the highest level in more than a decade.<\/p>\n Fuelling a growing sense of alarm in government, it comes as the former Blair-era cabinet minister Alan Milburn prepares to publish a highly anticipated report<\/a> into the crisis in youth jobs next week.<\/p>\n Milburn told MPs on Wednesday that Britain risked facing a \u201cgenerational problem\u201d that was worse than the damage inflicted on young people by the 2008 financial crisis.<\/p>\n The rate of 16- to 24-year-olds who were Neet peaked at 16.8% in 2012 amid soaring unemployment after the banking crash. The rate fell back, although has since increased sharply to 12.8% amid a difficult jobs market<\/a> and growing problems with mental ill-health.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the face of it we\u2019ve got a smaller problem. But what I want to say to you is \u2013 you\u2019ve got a bigger problem. Because the nature of the problem is more entrenched,\u201d Milburn said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a labour market problem, it\u2019s a jobs crisis \u2013 but it\u2019s being fuelled by a health crisis. And so these two things are self reinforcing: you have a vortex; a spiral. And it has enormous consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n The report, Inside the Mind of a Young Neet, argues the UK must stop blaming young people for a system that has let them down. Co-authored by researcher Shuab Gamote and the former headteacher, it draws on conversations with more than 400 young people across the UK.<\/p>\n The report states that Britain\u2019s workless youth faces \u201ca unique combination of challenges including: poverty, Covid, loneliness, social media addiction, and economic shock\u201d.<\/p>\n It adds: \u201cWe have created circumstances \u2013 run the economy into the ground, locked children away during lockdown, regimented them in schools, turned a blind eye to bullying, given them the social media tools of destruction \u2013 and then let them drift.\u201d<\/p>\n A joyless education system that focused too heavily on passing exams<\/a> and too often failed to address bullying and mental health problems left too many young people without qualifications or any sense of potential pathways to training or work, Hyman said. \u201cI was shocked by the level of vitriol and hatred these young people used when talking about school,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n