Last week it was my turn to offer a post for the HRUK group on Linkedin, which is also published at http://discusshr.blogspot.com/. The postings are designed to stimulate discussion amongst professionals in the world of Learning and Development and human Resources. Here it is:
Sometimes, it takes personal experience to bring home the challenges that we face in society at large. So it is that, in recent months, a number of personal experiences have brought home to me the plight of young people in our current times.
About 18 months ago a young friend, newly graduated, took up a teaching job in China. He is one of a generation of young people who are at a loss to find suitable work despite doing everything they were told to do (“work hard, get a good education”) to succeed. His experience was reinforced more recently when I spoke to a family friend, mother of two graduates – one of whom has subsequently trained as a barrister – who have both been unemployed for three years since leaving education. Even the local supermarkets have said no to employing them because they are “over-qualified” for the jobs available.
And yes, last years’ riots (which I mentioned in my December posting) also brought home the challenges young people face. I wrote on the day of the riots about an encounter with two young people who were lingering outside my front door after the rioters had left. I asked them if they’d been involved:
“No, not us, we’re good boys. We’re just covering up our faces because we don’t want to risk losing our jobs if we’re seen. But they” – pointing to the police – “they’ve got to understand that if they keep taking our jobs away, we’re going to do something – they’ve got to understand”.
I look back on my own formative years and realise how much I have to be grateful for. From a young age I had opportunities to earn money. I contributed half the cost of my first trip abroad (aged 14) from those earnings, which came from babysitting, from selling mushrooms which I picked on my parents’ farm before going to school, and from other work I did around the farm.
Later, aged 16 or so, I had a Saturday job at a department store some ten miles away, catching the bus to and from work. During my university years I spent holidays working at an old peoples’ home as Deputy Manager (something that, in retrospect, I can hardly believe) and, one year, doing the grape harvest in France. I was an au pair in Austria before I started my degree course and taught English in a French school for a year as part of my degree. In Austria I also taught English to one of my neighbour’s children. In France I tutored the son of an English family due to return to the UK as he prepared to take GCSEs.
From an early age there was unpaid work, too – what often get called “chores”. At home these included such things as laying the table and washing up after meals. In my last year at school I undertook to turn on the oven that warmed the plates for lunch at the beginning of each school day. At secondary school the prefects system conferred responsibility. By the time I left home I had at least some awareness of what it takes to manage my finances and to maintain a home. I’ve often thought of myself as particularly naive about the world of work during my formative years – I know now of many career paths which I could have taken then and of which I was just not aware at the time. Still, by the time I left full-time education I had experienced a variety of work.
Of course, the world has moved on since my childhood. And still, I wonder what messages we need to take from these experiences that might still apply today. Here are my first thoughts:
- I see a need for humility amongst the adults whose responsibility it is to contribute to children and young adults as they prepare for adult life and the world of work. The world today is different from the world we grew up in and tomorrow’s world will be different again. Imagining we know the answers for our children may go some way towards assuaging our fears and still, in the end, our role is to help young people find their own way in this ever-changing world;
- We all have a desire – a need, even – to contribute to others. Letting children play a role in the house from an early age supports them in meeting this need, builds self esteem and prepares them for their life as independent adults;
- Success in adult life takes many forms, not all of which depend on our exam results. Introducing children to both paid and unpaid work from an early age supports them in meeting immediate needs, in developing skills of living and in exploring possible avenues for a future career;
- In a world in which not everyone can find a job at all times, we – the adults – need to remember that, with or without a job, we are all, fundamentally, OK.