The Generation Game

I'm just about fed up of reading articles that paint young people as feckless, lazy, and poorly educated. There is a widespread consensus in the media now that the youth of today are less worthy of support than previous generations. Apparently we are all shirkers who are not prepared to work hard or study real subjects, like our parents did in their days.

The latest roasting came from the pen of Rod Liddle in today's Sunday Times. Any criticism from a man who earns his living writing sarcastic pieces about difficult targets like gays and Muslims is hard enough to take but his article today particularly makes the blood boil. Liddle asserts:

'The main reason British employers prefer eastern European migrants is that they will work harder for less. But a contributory factor is that the domestic workforce our schools are turning out are badly educated, incapable of adding things up or writing them down and - most crucially - possessed of the attitude that they shouldn't need to do these sorts of onerous activity, that they are vibrant and valid individuals in a very real sense who must be respected and not, you know, put upon by stuff.'

Let's just examine some of these claims in more detail:

1. Are young people badly educated? Figures from the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS) show that over 540,000 people in the UK applied to study at university in 2011, the vast majority aged 18. This is despite the Government trebling tuition fees in the same year. Ah, but most of these courses are 'mickey mouse subjects' and not serious subjects that people used to study, right? Well I suppose so, if you consider medicine, the most popular choice, to be such a soft course. Or engineering, or law, both of which attract applications from over 100,000 young people.

2. Do young people lack basic skills? Government data indicates that last year's GCSE results were the best ever with 7 out of 10 students achieving grade C or above. Ah, but this is because exams are getting easier, right? Research from ChildLine highlights the shocking numbers of young people who break down under the stress of preparing for these 'easy' exams. In one survey of 1300 students, 96% reported feeling stressed, almost 50% claimed to have skipped meals, 66% said that they had trouble sleeping, and 14% admitted to drinking alcohol to cope with the pressure. Feckless youths, indeed.

3. Are young people afraid of hard work? It is often said that students are too lazy to do hard work. In 2008 NatWest found that almost half of undergraduate students worked part-time to fund their degree courses. This was before both the increase in tuition fees and the abolition of EMA. Some students are so desperate to work that they are forced to take jobs in the sex industry. The National Union of Students estimates that 20% of all prostitutes working in the UK are students - those very same students that have nothing better to do than riot and claim benefits, apparently. Ah, but what about those young people who do not study?  The Government enjoys celebrating its apprenticeship programme but information suggests that young people who want to learn a trade are likely to be disappointed. The Centre for Economic Performance, for example, found that there were only 11 apprenticeships for every 1,000 workers in the UK and 4 out of 5 companies reported barriers to hiring apprentices. So it's a touch unfair to say that young people are not up for hard graft.

These facts prove that contrary to popular opinion, young people are often highly educated, motivated, and certainly not afraid of working hard. Rather, they indicate that Liddle is the lazy one for peddling an evidence-free assumption that members of his generation use to justify their stranglehold on the property market, winter fuel allowance, bus passes etc. Maybe he would be more than happy to sell his (no doubt large) property portfolio, stop writing his bland columns and go back to university (of course he would have to pay this time). Somehow I doubt it.