How easy is it to be a young person these days?

Being in my early Sixties I remember how easy it was to get a Job decent pay with a poor education.
The UK was an Employing Manufacturing Nation to-day the UK is an overpopulated small island with
a very small Manufacturing base that has been replaced by Warehouses;Call Centers&big supermarkets all employing significantly less so its much harder for young people.It use to be start at the bottom&maybe work you’re way up the ladder.No longer does this happen.I have met people stacking shelves in supermarkets who have been university and they said Quote (I was told work hard go to Uni get a Degree and you will get a good Job here i am sacking shelves no prospects) FACT.Most recently the American Dream has also collapsed climbing the Ladder.

I think most young people have a better material life than years ago. They seem to find money for cars, holidays, gadgets, entertainment that was harder to come by when I was younger – and working. Saving for an old car was a struggle, as was trying to get a house – remember the mid-70’s with rationed mortgages and high interest rates? New furniture and carpets – out of the question for a few years. Maybe my priorities were different then.

As a country, our second biggest mistake was winning the war (2nd) – we were bankrupted and industry was decimated. Instead of rebuilding our own industry we got the losers back on their feet. (Our first biggest mistake was getting involved in the first place).

We didn’t then invest and modernise much of our industry, and we had resistance to change and bickering that prevented us from being competitive – so manufacturing largely withered away.We gave away good ideas – like the jet engine – to our “friends”. So we laid the basis Sof modern Britain – supported by financial “industry” and services. Too one-sided.

The sooner we get more young people doing science, engineering, manufacturing technology, maths and allied topics – instead of hobby degrees – whether through university, college or apprenticeships, the better will be our longer-term future. So stop whinging and get on with it.

Now 61 but back in the early 70’s one September morning I was one of 120 fresh faced youngsters on the first day of a 5 year engineering apprenticeship. A local aerospace company had three local sites and took in a similar number every year. An almost guaranteed job on completion and thus given a good start.
Look what happens nowadays, youngsters who’s parents can afford it send their kids off to university studying some obscure subject and if they’re lucky most end up working for a supermarket or a call center. Very few end up doing what they wanted to do or even in the subject they studied.
As a nation we’ve changed from a base of manufacturing, where we actually produce something and where jobs were relatively plentiful to a service based economy which is basically everyone doing everyone else’s washing and for not much money. I think successive Governments should be very ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen.

No fun at all being a young worker today. A disappointing future following qualifications in useless subjects and even if not in a useless subject, in competition for what jobs there are with a growing influx of foreign workers diluting the workforce, pushing down pay levels, placing enormous pressure on services, increasing the housing shortage and thus making buying a home even more difficult
The good years have gone and I’m sad to say this generation will not do as well as the one before.

Time for a drastic rethink I’d say, in could be turned around, but unfortunately current Government is such that I don’t think it will happen any time soon, we’re too deep in the hole this and previous Governments have dug and an innocent generation (at least one generation) will be lost.

I left school at 15 yrs of age and took up a career at sea in the MN. During those days of 55 yrs ago a young person could have walked out of one job at lunchtime and into another the same afternoon. Why has this collapsed particularly when Government tell us education has much much more spent on it than previously? Perhaps it may be something to do with exactly where money is being spent, is it spent wisely ensuring young folk are literate and numerate? I doubt it, the roots of ‘modern’ education lie in the 1960’s when any liberal fool with a half baked idea could stand on his / her soapbox and expound the latest ‘in’ theory. Forty odd yrs of ‘modern’ methods haven’t yielded very much, have they? As for Government, what chance a radical re-think? None. When a Government has run it’s course where do they end up? In a bank or an oil company. Any wonder there have been no prosecutions? So long as this prevails there will be no useful change in the education system. Much needs to be done to get away from so called progressive thinking.
Who in their right mind thought teaching 7 yr old children the joys of homosexuality was a good idea. Has the Minister sought to establish if there was some other agenda afoot? Unlikely he/she are likely ‘learning’ lessons, isn’t that the byword today? Inaction and incompetence.

I am a 2nd war child and started work in the late fifties. I fully agree with previous writers, I could get a job then at any time with virtually no qualifications mostly in the servicing or manufacturing industries.
My wife the same age has just commented she applied for five jobs and following interviews was offered all five!!!, working in shops, eventually with M and S a really good company.
After serving an apprentership in the motor industry I decided when we wanted to get married to improve my standing and joined the Police Force. This was the best occupation ever and since retirement has given me a satisfying life with a good pension.
None of your contributors have mentioned such an occupation or the services, ambulance or Fire Brigade, medical etc.
One has to look forward to old age as well……… a good pension is worth a fortune. Does no one save for old age nowadays….. I did and now benefit.