Not down with the new lingo? In case you are unaware, a 'NEET' is the freshly coined terminology for: not in education, employment or training...specifically for which age group do you reckon? Yep yep, it's us headline making youngsters again!
So, how did this new term and the people involved come about? I have a theory. In fact, it's knowledge gained from experience. Originating from a working class/low income family - I decided not to go down the academic route, just like many before me and many young people now. Not because I wasn't capable, I just felt I had far more going for me than just being a bit smart. I could actually apply my intelligence to practical tasks. So, after dropping out of a shockingly unproductive college BTEC course, aged 16, I moved from Somerset to the luscious territory of Surrey to find a job. I worked a few very low paid jobs until, as was my plan...I blagged an impressive employer to take me on board. From then on whenever some 17 year old guy went to chat me up, they were often gobsmacked when I replied to their: 'So what college are you at?' with: 'Actually I don't go to college. I work at Shepperton Film studios.' I thought I'd done it. I'd got my first foot on the ladder to something exciting, however, after about a year working there, it emerged the only way I was going to get promoted, was if someone died. There were no talks of my glorious future or further training, even when I used my own initiative to travel to Wales to see a project first hand and get more involved - there simply wasn't room for a plucky youngster with nought but good GCSE's. Luckily, thanks to my own geeky desires, I had started night time A level classes at Richmond college on the side. I took my exams a month after leaving Shepperton and then moved even closer to the bright lights, to my home town: London. Surely with some eye catching work experience, A levels AND my bright eyed bushy tailed 18 year oldness...an employer would happily snatch me up to be trained as their protege? But no. I spent the next year and a half job hopping from unsatisfying role to uninteresting only-did-it-for-the-money roles to being conned out of my time and talent and filling out an application form for an employment tribunal...all dead end jobs with no pathway up. It wasn't a complete waste of time, I did get some volunteering and work experience on my C.V. I had also, again, felt that unyielding need for knowledge and been studying part time at the Open University. Over the past two years I'd passed two courses in humanities at the O.U. Broke, waiting for a court case and living on friends couches. It was time. I took what I felt was the only way out. I applied for full time university. Now, I'd always generally been against attending the elitist academia institutes of University buildings. I viewed them as the playground's of the middle and upper classes. The escape from parental clutches to be institutionalised and spoon fed into independent living and adulthood. Not the place for someone who flew the nest four years ago, had work experience and defined career goals - but what choice did I have? It provided accommodation, funding and most importantly...a way up and out. A way out of the cycle of getting up and going to work for absolutely no other reason than the money to live on...and even that was questionable. My feelings of being little more than a paid chimp to the tune of capitalism was over...at least for the next two years whilst I complete my degree it is anyway.
I have not been a 'NEET' for more than a month or two consecutively but if I'd had parents to live off whilst trying to figure out this new 'university only' loop hole, I certainly would have been a NEET for those two years of discovery. So enough of my drab life story so far, why is it becoming increasingly hard for young people to find their place in the working world? As I believe from my own experiences and the recent media, you cannot 'work your way up' anymore. If you start of as the tea maker when you're 16...it is now most likely you'll still be there when you're 22. I was told a while ago that it is actually possible to get a degree in David Beckham. Employable. This is an extreme example, but universities are now offering courses in things like make-up, dance, events management. These all used to be things you just did. You went out and got a trainee, starter job and just did it. Even my own chosen discipline: journalism. You used to start off as the errand guy/runner/tea maker when you left school. Now you need a degree before you even dream to aspire to be anything more than a glorified secretary (and there are now college courses for that too!). The governments closing of my personal favourites connexion: a government run job centre for teenagers, (they helped me get the job at Shepperton and many others) reiterates the message loud and clear: the practical way in, is no longer a way in.
So, are we all getting smarter then? Isn't it a good thing that academia is so widely available to all? Not if you never wanted to be academic in the first place - and certainly not if you want to stay out of debt. Ah, debt. The deficit of the UK and our neighbors is constantly fired out of our screens, the global market is under history making strain...how convenient we're now all running up large scale debts for our career training - when you used to get paid whilst doing it...does anyone else feel we're paying for the debt with our debt that was only taken out because of the domino effects of... the national debt!? It's an outlandishly paranoid statement I'm sure...yet you still can't help that awful shudder of prickles tingling down your spine. The realisation your offspring are being conned into paying for a large part of national debt with the wizardly curtain of Oz being advertised as their 'choice' for a better future.
The bad news isn't even over yet, as the short straw has been drawn once again: the job market is still in disrepair. Graduates are finding it increasingly hard to find the well paid jobs they got in debt and spent three years studying to gain -this is leading to an indebted society who are over qualified for the jobs available. The gap in the market needs to be filled. I'm well aware the government are clinging onto their creation of more apprenticeships, which is great if you want to be a mechanic. For those that could easily fling them selves into years of debt with an aura of academic abilities but are more than capable of working a challenging job and would subsequently much rather, there's a pathetic tit-bit of opportunities being fought over a scrap heap. The economic (or should I say false economic) situation is affecting businesses to the point where they simply are in no position to take on talented youngsters...forcing those of practical ability to metamorphosis into academics or, become a NEET. Those forced into academia will soon be paying up to £9,000 a year in tuition fees, it's an unbelievable catch 22. The reason more youngsters (and even record numbers of mature students) than ever before are choosing university is to escape the declining job market caused by spiraling national debts...the thing you're paying £9,000 a year to help repay...bloody cheek. Someone bring back the 'working your way up' facility the youth of today deserve as did those before us, before the tea maker role becomes extinct!
These forgotten NEETS need decent pay packets coupled with training and opportunity, an alternative path that doesn't involve having to go to university and accumulate astronomical debts. It is not much to ask to know their talents or strengths will not be overlooked because the company 'just doesn't have the payroll/programme/time. It is not right to push the majority of a generation to go through vocational degrees, coming out with around £50,000 of debt...when they should of been able to go to the job centre. After school or college, leavers should be able to get a paid job as a trainee/junior photographer/journalist/make-up artist/events manager/runner/tea maker soon-to-be director/editor or even...David Beckhams P.A...OK, maybe not the last one. A further dampening fact on the already sodden agenda is the only reason this is happening is because of the debt caused by those before us...the ones who - imagine a stern father raising his eyebrows to a pajama clad NEET saying this to them: 'back in the day we worked our way up.' The NEET is little more than the love child of the governments unholy affair with the economy that needs quick adoption by loving corporations, ASAP.
If you are interested in some of the alternatives mentioned above and a few others...I hope the below links are of use:
I attended:
http://www.rutc.ac.uk/template2c/index.asp?expandable=12
http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/
Other links to similar courses:
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/prospective/undergraduate/
http://london.floodlight.co.uk/london/courses-classes-lessons/subject/qualification/study/region/16180339/220706/100/domain.html
http://www.greenwich-college.ac.uk/landing/adwords/undergrad/bsc/business-management.asp?mcc=gadw&gclid=CKCM_4q-zasCFcYPfAod_Rp91Q
Please feel free to leave comments, all opinions welcome.
So, how did this new term and the people involved come about? I have a theory. In fact, it's knowledge gained from experience. Originating from a working class/low income family - I decided not to go down the academic route, just like many before me and many young people now. Not because I wasn't capable, I just felt I had far more going for me than just being a bit smart. I could actually apply my intelligence to practical tasks. So, after dropping out of a shockingly unproductive college BTEC course, aged 16, I moved from Somerset to the luscious territory of Surrey to find a job. I worked a few very low paid jobs until, as was my plan...I blagged an impressive employer to take me on board. From then on whenever some 17 year old guy went to chat me up, they were often gobsmacked when I replied to their: 'So what college are you at?' with: 'Actually I don't go to college. I work at Shepperton Film studios.' I thought I'd done it. I'd got my first foot on the ladder to something exciting, however, after about a year working there, it emerged the only way I was going to get promoted, was if someone died. There were no talks of my glorious future or further training, even when I used my own initiative to travel to Wales to see a project first hand and get more involved - there simply wasn't room for a plucky youngster with nought but good GCSE's. Luckily, thanks to my own geeky desires, I had started night time A level classes at Richmond college on the side. I took my exams a month after leaving Shepperton and then moved even closer to the bright lights, to my home town: London. Surely with some eye catching work experience, A levels AND my bright eyed bushy tailed 18 year oldness...an employer would happily snatch me up to be trained as their protege? But no. I spent the next year and a half job hopping from unsatisfying role to uninteresting only-did-it-for-the-money roles to being conned out of my time and talent and filling out an application form for an employment tribunal...all dead end jobs with no pathway up. It wasn't a complete waste of time, I did get some volunteering and work experience on my C.V. I had also, again, felt that unyielding need for knowledge and been studying part time at the Open University. Over the past two years I'd passed two courses in humanities at the O.U. Broke, waiting for a court case and living on friends couches. It was time. I took what I felt was the only way out. I applied for full time university. Now, I'd always generally been against attending the elitist academia institutes of University buildings. I viewed them as the playground's of the middle and upper classes. The escape from parental clutches to be institutionalised and spoon fed into independent living and adulthood. Not the place for someone who flew the nest four years ago, had work experience and defined career goals - but what choice did I have? It provided accommodation, funding and most importantly...a way up and out. A way out of the cycle of getting up and going to work for absolutely no other reason than the money to live on...and even that was questionable. My feelings of being little more than a paid chimp to the tune of capitalism was over...at least for the next two years whilst I complete my degree it is anyway.
I have not been a 'NEET' for more than a month or two consecutively but if I'd had parents to live off whilst trying to figure out this new 'university only' loop hole, I certainly would have been a NEET for those two years of discovery. So enough of my drab life story so far, why is it becoming increasingly hard for young people to find their place in the working world? As I believe from my own experiences and the recent media, you cannot 'work your way up' anymore. If you start of as the tea maker when you're 16...it is now most likely you'll still be there when you're 22. I was told a while ago that it is actually possible to get a degree in David Beckham. Employable. This is an extreme example, but universities are now offering courses in things like make-up, dance, events management. These all used to be things you just did. You went out and got a trainee, starter job and just did it. Even my own chosen discipline: journalism. You used to start off as the errand guy/runner/tea maker when you left school. Now you need a degree before you even dream to aspire to be anything more than a glorified secretary (and there are now college courses for that too!). The governments closing of my personal favourites connexion: a government run job centre for teenagers, (they helped me get the job at Shepperton and many others) reiterates the message loud and clear: the practical way in, is no longer a way in.
The bad news isn't even over yet, as the short straw has been drawn once again: the job market is still in disrepair. Graduates are finding it increasingly hard to find the well paid jobs they got in debt and spent three years studying to gain -this is leading to an indebted society who are over qualified for the jobs available. The gap in the market needs to be filled. I'm well aware the government are clinging onto their creation of more apprenticeships, which is great if you want to be a mechanic. For those that could easily fling them selves into years of debt with an aura of academic abilities but are more than capable of working a challenging job and would subsequently much rather, there's a pathetic tit-bit of opportunities being fought over a scrap heap. The economic (or should I say false economic) situation is affecting businesses to the point where they simply are in no position to take on talented youngsters...forcing those of practical ability to metamorphosis into academics or, become a NEET. Those forced into academia will soon be paying up to £9,000 a year in tuition fees, it's an unbelievable catch 22. The reason more youngsters (and even record numbers of mature students) than ever before are choosing university is to escape the declining job market caused by spiraling national debts...the thing you're paying £9,000 a year to help repay...bloody cheek. Someone bring back the 'working your way up' facility the youth of today deserve as did those before us, before the tea maker role becomes extinct!
These forgotten NEETS need decent pay packets coupled with training and opportunity, an alternative path that doesn't involve having to go to university and accumulate astronomical debts. It is not much to ask to know their talents or strengths will not be overlooked because the company 'just doesn't have the payroll/programme/time. It is not right to push the majority of a generation to go through vocational degrees, coming out with around £50,000 of debt...when they should of been able to go to the job centre. After school or college, leavers should be able to get a paid job as a trainee/junior photographer/journalist/make-up artist/events manager/runner/tea maker soon-to-be director/editor or even...David Beckhams P.A...OK, maybe not the last one. A further dampening fact on the already sodden agenda is the only reason this is happening is because of the debt caused by those before us...the ones who - imagine a stern father raising his eyebrows to a pajama clad NEET saying this to them: 'back in the day we worked our way up.' The NEET is little more than the love child of the governments unholy affair with the economy that needs quick adoption by loving corporations, ASAP.
If you are interested in some of the alternatives mentioned above and a few others...I hope the below links are of use:
I attended:
http://www.rutc.ac.uk/template2c/index.asp?expandable=12
http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/
Other links to similar courses:
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/prospective/undergraduate/
http://london.floodlight.co.uk/london/courses-classes-lessons/subject/qualification/study/region/16180339/220706/100/domain.html
http://www.greenwich-college.ac.uk/landing/adwords/undergrad/bsc/business-management.asp?mcc=gadw&gclid=CKCM_4q-zasCFcYPfAod_Rp91Q
Please feel free to leave comments, all opinions welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment