Short selling on the optimism of our young people
August 13th, 2010 by Katherine Trebeck Posted in Attitudes, Livelihoods, UK poverty, Welfare reform
David Cameron has said that in its spending cuts the ‘first thing’ the government should do is cut fraud and waste in the benefit system.
The first thing? Really? Of course fraud anywhere should be stamped out – there is no question about that. But of all the evasion, waste, self-indulgence of MPs, is targeting some of the poorest people in our society really the first thing that needs to be done? I find it hard not to be astounded by the way that Cameron is picking on such an easy target.
Maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised. People on benefits have long been positioned as ‘undeserving’ and labelled as ‘scroungers’.
Yet people on benefits are some of the most vulnerable people in our communities who need our support, not further stigmatisation. They need real opportunities – this should be the first priority of any government, not putting people on benefits in the front of the firing line as the state seeks to recoup money deployed saving the banks and our consumption-obsessed economy from deeper recession.
Prioritising young people in particular is an urgent task if we are to give them cause for optimism. I am not talking about simply ‘hug a hoodie’ rhetoric, but proper, even brave, leadership that doesn’t perpetuate the worst instincts of those who will hang onto scapegoats put before them.
What I mean is truly giving people on benefits a chance – a chance to shine if you’ll excuse the pop-idol language.
And the need for this shift is underscored by recent evidence that suggests young people from workless families are more optimistic for themselves than we are: the Prince’s Trust released research this week showing that nearly one in five (18%) young people from workless homes expect to end up on benefits because other people around them have done so. That means that four in five don’t expect to end up on benefits!
To me, this is an incredible triumph of optimism in the face of all the evidence that there are few jobs out there for young people. The STUC has just warned of a ‘bleak’ outlook for young people in the labour market, and policy makers frequently refer to the risk of a ‘lost generation’.
We know that young people make decisions and frame their expectations on the basis of information they have available to them. This includes the experiences they have had in school, training, the labour market and their views of the experiences of those around them. For those who did not excel in school or other education, there are few jobs left that offer cause for aspiration (at least aspiration as the policy makers see it).
If decent work is not realistically available, if their experiences of work have proved to be that it is low paid, short-lived and without prospects of progression, then can we blame young people from workless families for not dreaming of becoming chartered accountants, dentists, tax lawyers or even Members of Parliament?
As geographers at the University of Glasgow Cumbers, Helms and Straus warn: existing training schemes do fall short of the provision of opportunities that might enhance individuals choice and life chances…this clearly implies that it is not a ‘lack of aspiration’ at play here…[What is at play is that] expectations of a decent, quality apprenticeship and training are not being either met, or pursued, by policy…the real issue is the provision of diverse options for young people that might enable them to assess and make their own decisions…
Anything less than provision of such diverse options in a tangible realistic way is simply selling our vulnerable young people short.
One Response to “Short selling on the optimism of our young people”
By Sarah on Sep 9, 2010
Lack of aspiration…surely this depends on how you define aspiration…?
I recently carried out some training with some very vulnerable young people as part of a wider ‘employment training’ course and when asking them what they were hoping to go on to their answers were along the lines of; ‘work in an office’, ‘receptionist’, ‘work in a shop’. Now to most people this would equate to a lack of aspiration, but it is important to look at the situations of people before judging whether this is a lack of aspiration or not. These young people had for whatever reason, a bad experience at school and had not done well, some had learning disabilities and conditions that hold them back socially; they were classic vulnerable young people. What hope do most of these people have to be able to make it to be a doctor or a lawyer or whatever else society classes as a high aspiration? So what do we do? Once again we look to blame them for not achieving more rather than looking at what we as a society have in place for people who have learning difficulties or disabilities.
The issue is we, the middle classes, define what is aspiration from our own experiences and the people around us and then judge other people for it. But why is it that working in an office is not an aspiration? I can guarantee you that without admin staff the other higher paid and valued staff would not be anywhere near as efficent and effective. They work just as hard yet are not valued or paid as much to reflect that. Other cases in point: Carers – one of the worst paid jobs in the UK, yet carrying out one of the most important jobs – caring for our children and our older folk and all those people who need support in their lives. We don’t see being a carer as an aspiration because it does not have a high salary connected to it, precisely because we do not value it. One more case in point: cleaners – no-one aspires to be a cleaner yet look what happens when you don’t have good cleaners in hospitals – a whole new disease breaks out – another undervalued yet highly important job. And by the way, if we all aspired to doing jobs other than these, who would be left to actually carry them out?
Not everyone wants to have an academic job, not everyone aspires to working solely for profit which is where all the high paid jobs are. But no job should be seen as so menial that it should have to equate to a life of poverty yet this is what many of these jobs often do.
The injustice for me is that these young people will work their hardest to try and get into those jobs and that will be a great achievement for them, but they will still continued to be judged and valued on what they have managed to do. No wonder there is a lack of self esteem and self belief when the rest of us treat them like this.
I was really inspired by those young people that day – they were full of hope and determination in the face of such dismal opportunities. I applauded and encouraged them in their aims and valued their goals in life. What right do I and the rest of society have to say that they lack aspirations?