Taken from the BBC in August of last year.
On Tuesday, a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research and the Private Equity Foundation said the risk of a teenager with A-levels becoming Neet had risen by 40% since the start of the recession.
Just over 9% of those with Level 3 qualifications (which includes A-levels) were classified as Neet in the second quarter of 2010, up from 6.4% in the first quarter of 2008.
The findings, which were published days before A-level results are released, suggested recent graduates had seen the fastest increase in the numbers becoming Neet, with the risk growing by 50% since 2008.
And from the Argus not so long ago.
Sussex Business Times.
The real key to this is that the world has changed somewhat in the last 10 years.
From recent history if you pop over here to see the BBC Domesday documentation showing how much has changed in very short 25 years or so.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday/search?q=prices&type=Content
You can wonder now why I am outlining these things for you, and I will explain. As you know the world has changed dramatically in the past 10 years or so, let alone the last 25. Reality is that it will continue to change and fast.
10 years ago there was no Youtube, Facebook or Iplayer, no Iphone/Android or 24/7 internet Access, and the advice you were given when making your education choices was this.
Study hard, go to UNI, get good qualifications, then a decent job with a Pension, get married, buy a house and settle down to watch you kids grow up, safe in the knowledge that your Pension will be great and death, when it comes will be after a long and healthy life thanks to the NHS.
So what happened? Well this is not a political rant, I will let someone else do that, but I do want to make a couple of statements of fact which are of course inescapable no matter what colour your politics are.
The Job for life went some years ago and it’s not coming back.
The financing or the banks is going to take some further 3- 5 years before they start lending again.
Much of the UK are so far in debt it will take years to get better, and of course even if interest rates stay so low it is likely that 3 – 5 years will be conservative.
Pensions – UK Pensions are a disaster, and no one in Government has woken up to that fact yet.
Mass immigration has not even started yet, let alone started to slow down and this is likely to get worse as the Middle East melts down.
So what does this mean for you, well if you are 18 – 30 and can speak, read and write English there is massive opportunity, only not the sort of opportunity that you first think.
Jobs are going to get harder and harder to find no matter what your qualifications, everyone it seems has a degree now. Of course your own business is something everyone dreams of, you only need to look at the idiots on the Apprentice to understand this, if these are the best the BBC could find God Help Us.
Let me cut to the chase. I have worked within the Financial Services industry for the past 22 years and recently retired. Before that I have held various employed and self employed positions.
I have also managed two charities in recent years, both working in the area of Youth and Drug Education, yup I know what goes on.
Key is this; I have always understood a couple of things, firstly there is no such thing as luck and chance and
Attitude, careful thought and application (doing stuff) all detemine what you get, do nothing, get nothing it’s simple.
There is another issue, learning stuff, if you keep on reading, playing and taking action you will always be moving forward. Simple.
In this modern connected age there is no need to be ignorant or not know anything, if you don’t know you can simple google it or find a forum with the information on it.
So there are several things you should be focused on if you are one of these (and I hate this term) Neet’s, there is some stuff you can do, there is hope out there but of course you will have to learn some stuff and take some action, simply put if you do there is “gold in them there hills”.