The findings

Our engagement work with young people found a gap between what their expectations as teenagers had been of their life in their twenties and their actual experiences. As teenagers, they had expected, by their mid-twenties to have a secure job, own a home and be married or in a secure relationship, often with children. A vision largely driven by what they imagined their parents’ lives to have been like at that age.

However, by their twenties few, if any, of these expectations had materialised. Young people were generally struggling to secure permanent work with the salaries, conditions and work-life balance they wanted – underemployment and insecure work were commonly mentioned as a source of anxiety. Few yet owned their own homes – something they perceived as a source of security. Yet their aspirations still remained largely unchanged. They continued to work towards the same goals, striving to make up the gap between expectations and reality.

Not yet feeling like adults, but no longer teenagers, young people characterised their twenties as a kind of liminal phase – caught between these two identities. In the face of having accomplished less than they had expected, this transitional period was often dominated by stress, insecurity, and anxiety – as young people struggled to live up to their own expectations. As a result, priorities for this group were driven by a desire for stability, security, and a sense of control.

Throughout these discussions, four assets consistently emerged as important in helping young people secure the building blocks for a healthy future.

We listened to young people’s experiences in Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, London and Newtownabbey in Northern Ireland. More information on the voices of young people can be found in the appendix.

The four assets are as follows.

  • Appropriate skills and qualifications: ‘how right are my skills for the career I want?’
  • Personal connections: ‘the confidence and connections to navigate the adult world’
  • Financial and practical support: ‘having the support to achieve what I want from life’
  • Emotional support: ‘people I can lean on emotionally’

Each of these is explained in the following section.

Appropriate skills and qualifications

What young people said

A big consideration for young people was whether they had obtained or were on their way to obtaining the right skills and qualifications to get the career they wanted. This was not about what level of education they had, but about whether they had the appropriate skills to pursue their chosen career whether they wanted to be an electrician, solicitor or actor.

Our young people’s poll found: While most (92%) young people think it’s important to have the opportunity to achieve the right skills and qualifications for their chosen careers ... less than half believed they fully had the opportunity to achieve these skills and qualifications.

Some young people struggled to decide what they wanted to do and, more commonly, they found that the skills they did have were not the ones they needed for their preferred job.

‘My difficulties used to lie in the fact I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, so I always doubted myself.’

Cardiff

Young people also identified pressure to pursue a certain path, due to their parents’ expectations or professions, as a reason for selecting a career that was not their first choice.

‘Sometimes you cannot talk to your family, they think things are so rigid, but they’re not. It’s different when you grow up in this lifestyle, this culture.’

London

What others are saying

Ensuring that young people have the right skills for employment is also of increasing concern for employers. The British Chambers of Commerce identifies skills shortage as the biggest risk for business. Its January 2018 Quarterly Economic Survey revealed that of the manufacturers that had attempted to recruit in the last three months (66%), 75% had difficulties recruiting. Skilled manual labour was the key area lacking among applicants (68%). Similarly, in the services sector, 71% of businesses attempting to recruit said they had experienced greater recruitment difficulties. For both sectors, these figures indicate the highest level of reported recruitment difficulties since records began.

The Prince’s Trust Youth Index recently found that 28% of working young people felt trapped in a cycle of jobs they did not want. Furthermore, 29% of working young people said that they had to take whatever jobs they could, instead of focusing on their career.

Personal connections

What young people said

Young people highlighted the importance of having personal connections who could help when it came to employment. These provided them with:

Advice:

Guidance through the job market, helping them identify what they wanted to do, the skills needed and how they get there.

Networks:

Connections to networks that could unlock the door to finding a job or help them take their first step on the career ladder.

Confidence:

Support to boost their confidence in their ability to achieve their goals. This is particularly important when applying for jobs and being able to handle new situations, especially in the workplace.

Our young people’s poll found: Of people aged 22–26, 89% said that having the right relationships and networking opportunities to help them enter and progress through the working environment is important ... but just 31% felt they fully had these growing up.

Young people often mentioned parents/carers and other family members as providing advice and networks to help them get their first job. They also described mentors – both formal and informal – as providing support, filling gaps left by parents/carers who lacked relevant experience, who were unsupportive or who were not around. For some young people, these connections were fundamental to them starting their careers. Even for those who were highly qualified (eg in law or teaching), a lack of personal connections meant they struggled to step onto the career ladder.

‘I am in such a competitive industry and this is something I definitely didn’t realise before studying it at university. Therefore, the challenges I might face along the way are other people trying to achieve the same as me. Any available work experience in related companies would hopefully help me achieve a career.’

Newtownabbey

Young people saw self-confidence as important. Certain personal connections helped boost their confidence. Many saw success as a result of their own hard work and attributed failure to a lack of confidence. Some people found having a ‘personal cheerleader’ invaluable in helping them take the necessary steps to get where they wanted.

‘When I went back to studying after having my girl, my lecturer was really, really encouraging to me in helping me get through. He’s done so much personally for me… I thought I would never be able to do this [go back to studying].’

Glasgow

What others are saying

Research also indicates a direct relationship between personal connections and the job market. According to the Next Steps survey, at 19 years old, 20% of those who were previously NEET cited friends and family as a factor that helped them into employment. This and ‘own motivation’ were the most popular factors.

In addition, research by the Education and Employers charity found that the more encounters young people had with employers while in school, the more they are likely to earn and the lower their chances are of finding themselves NEET as young adults.

Relationships and social capital are not just about knowing people who can help find you a job. They are also about providing the ‘know-how’ to thrive in the working world. The Prince’s Trust refers to this as ‘the social bank of mum and dad’, with young people from more affluent families more likely to have help with writing a CV, filling out an application, preparing for an interview or finding work experience.

The Prince’s Trust found that 44% of young people from poorer backgrounds said they did not know anyone who could help them find a job. This compares to 26% of their more advantaged peers. Supporting these figures, 20% of young people found some work experience through parents/carers, but only 10% of those from poorer backgrounds said they found similar opportunities.

Financial and practical support

What young people said

Young people spoke a lot about ensuring they had the right help. This help was broadly split into two categories:

  • practical support, such as childcare or the continued ability to live at home with their parents/carers
  • financial support for things like rent and bills.

Young people saw the need for this safety net as particularly important as they transitioned into adulthood.

‘I love that my mum and dad are there for me … it gives me the opportunity to save my money instead of wasting it on rent.’

Cardiff

Our young people’s poll found: Over three-quarters (77%) of people aged 22–26 said that having financial and practical support from family was important ... but less than half (46%) felt they fully had these growing up.

Those who lacked a strong safety net found housing experiences particularly stressful. Many were expected to move out of the family home at the end of school or university, or reached a point where their parents/carers did not have the space for them. In some cases, this resulted in young people relying on benefits and low-cost housing, which sometimes led to inadequate living situations.

Lack of a safety net – for example being able to live at home rent-free or support with childcare – limited their ability to take risks such as changing career paths or returning to work after having a baby.

Parents/carers appeared to be the primary provider of this safety net. Some young people, especially those from more affluent backgrounds, suggested that their parents/carers would also cover, or contribute to, their bills and rent while they were at university or after moving out of the family home.

‘I can only afford it through class privilege. I 100% do not currently have the income to pay for this flat.’

Newtownabbey

What others are saying

Findings from the Resolution Foundation’s Intergenerational Commission suggests that millennials (born 1981–2000) are at risk of becoming the first generation to earn less than their predecessors. As pointed out earlier, its findings suggest that millennials (born 1981–2000) have earned £8,000 less throughout their 20s than the generation before them (born 1966–980).55 If this trend continues it will only further young people’s financial dependence on their parents/carers, increasing the division between those who have a practical and financial safety net and those who do not. With rising costs and stagnating wages, the debt to income ratio for 17–24-year-olds in 2015 was 70%, compared to 34% for 25–29-year-olds and 11% for 60–64-year-olds.

Emotional support

What young people said

Emotional support also emerged as a necessary asset during transition to adulthood. This support mostly came from parents/carers and partners, but in some cases came from other family members, mentors (teachers, community members, work managers) or friends. Young people placed significant importance on being able to speak openly and honestly about their future and in return they wanted to receive encouragement to take the risks that would help them achieve what they wanted, such as going back to education or retraining. Where young people were in stable relationships, partners in particular played a key role in supporting some of the young people’s ambitions, while encouraging them to pursue their desired career path.

Our young people’s poll found: Of people aged 22–26, 90% said that having emotional support from family is important ... but less than half (49%) felt that they fully had this growing up.

In some cases, when young people had fractured relationships with their parents/carers, friends provided them with emotional support, helping them get through difficult periods in their lives such as mental health issues, relationship breakdowns and bereavements.

‘My friends have an important role in my life, when I have problems they help me through and help me solve them… when we have a break, as in nights out, they’re the best to make your night fun and create good memories.’

Glasgow

Having strong emotional support was not a universal experience. Some young people lacked it in any form as they had unhealthy or fractured relationships with their parents/carers, partners or friends and no access to any additional support such as a mentor. In other cases, some young people had very supportive families but felt isolated from them as they had moved away for work or university. This meant these young people had limited access to much-needed emotional support.

What others are saying

The existing academic research suggests a complex interplay between emotional support, relationships, wellbeing and long-term health. These factors exist in cyclical relationships, influencing and exacerbating one another. The research also reflects the fact that young people need to develop social and emotional capabilities as well cognitive skills to achieve the outcomes they value and that they often do this by modelling the examples they see around them.

Recent developments in neuroscience for this age group have revealed that emotional processing and emotional regulation are continually developing during the teenage years. While understanding is continually developing, it is likely that strong emotional support during this period can help young people learn to manage their emotions constructively. Indeed, there is evidence that having a ‘trusted adult’ providing support in a young person’s life can mitigate some of the impacts of abuse and other adverse experiences of childhood.

The outside world

What young people said

As well as the four assets identified above, young people discussed the impact their environment was having on their ability to achieve their goals. They talked about the challenges in getting a job due to a lack of opportunities in their local community, leaving some feeling trapped and at a ‘dead end’. In some cases, this was compounded for young people in areas with a difficult housing market, with soaring rents and poor quality housing.

Despite these factors being beyond their control, many young people still felt that the resulting challenges were due to their own lack of confidence, laziness or poor financial management. Some carried a very strong sense of personal responsibility for their successes and their failures, with a clear affect on their self-esteem. At the same time, young people who were achieving what they wanted felt that their success came from their own hard work and determination.

‘I’ve had four different jobs, only one of them was full time, but I was self-employed… There isn’t enough full time jobs for people.’

Cardiff

‘House prices are really expensive and out of the realm of what you can afford.’

Newtonabbey

What others are saying

The levels of youth unemployment vary across the country. Particularly in areas that once relied on traditional industries such as coal mining or manufacturing, as well as seaside areas. In the UK, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Barnsley and Glasgow have the highest rates of youth unemployment, with Southampton, York and Reading and Bracknell experiencing the lowest.

The price and quality of housing also varies significantly across the country, alongside a varying relationship with local wages, creating a complicated system to navigate for young people when looking for work outside their local area.

The outside influences working against young people are not limited to the local job and housing markets. Other factors such as community cohesion and whether there are clear pathways from education and training into the workforce will also have an impact on the extent to which young people are able to develop assets as they grow up and realise value from them as they transition into adulthood. Recent policy changes, such as the introduction of universal credit, and the age cap on the living wage, also affect young people as they transition out of education and their parents/carers home into the working world. The traditional safety net provided by the benefit system, that in the past has helped people cope with periods of disadvantage, is becoming weaker. A four-year freeze to most working-age benefits is reducing their value relative to the cost of living. In 2018–2019 alone this equates to a 3% real-term cut. Universal credit is overall less generous than the system it replaces and it is the under-25 single parent families who are expected to lose the most.

‘The fact is that the conditions to which we are exposed influence our behaviour. Most of us cherish the notion of free choice, but our choices are constrained by the conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work and age.’

Michael Marmot, The Health Gap

Previous Next