Young people are not being prepared for the world of work - Sarah Todd

Society and, more specifically, parents and schools are to blame for this and examples are all around us.

Last time the hairdresser was visited it suddenly struck that, even on a Saturday, there was no young girl - or boy before people put pen to paper - helping out. The stylist, probably older than her client so with a lifetime’s worth of experience, was also making the tea, sweeping the hair and folding the towels.

“Nobody wants to do it nowadays,” she said, as this customer interrupted her curry combing of the curls to ask about the absence of the traditional Saturday girl.

Having a Saturday job used to be a rite of passage for children and there are many traditional examples, from delivering newspapers to pot washing at a local pub.

So few have a little part-time job that it’s very hard to find any figures, but back in 2020 it was reported that the proportion of teenagers working on a weekend was almost half what it was 20 years before. So we can only presume that the numbers setting an alarm for an early start have continued to plummet.

This decline in teenage part-time work must be at least partly responsible for leaving so many young people unprepared for the realities of real life.

Education authorities have a lot to answer for. Instead of creating rounded human beings they often seem only interested in hothousing them through tests and exams. The rough and tumble of competitive sport - try finding a sports’ day that hasn’t been reduced to a medals for all farce - is certainly lacking in the state sector.

As are the playground games of our youth, such as conkers or British Bulldogs. All put on the naughty step, as somebody might get hurt (presumably emotionally as well as physically).

It's also, having a quick look, not so simple for businesses to take on a bit of help what with child employment permits needed, along with payroll administration.

Careers advice in schools is a national disgrace, with the compulsory fortnight’s work experience of this reporter’s day a thing of the past.

Last October, a report showed that less than half of all GCSE pupils have done any work experience before they sit their exams.

Analysis of 147,000 Year 10 pupils revealed that the proportion is even lower for pupils on free school meals - perhaps with parents who aren’t working? - and those in the north of England.

Excuses given by schools include the time it takes staff to organise it, the cost of health and safety checks and - since the blessed pandemic - the number of people now working from home so no physical work building for a youngster to be based at.

Work is a shock to the system. Day after day, getting up, smartening up and arriving on time. Having to be pleasant to people and getting in trouble when something goes wrong.

Although, thinking aloud, there won’t be roastings like those of us of a certain age endured. Spelling was an Achillies heel and the newsroom of the 1980s was no stranger to hardback dictionaries being thrown to reiterate its importance.

The pendulum has swung too far in favour of exam results and away from the working world. Can these young people really be blamed for not liking the nasty world of work when they have never experienced it? When all their lives they have been told that if things don’t go their way, they shouldn’t put it down to experience but lodge a complaint and get a sick note.

It's impossible not to comment that there is one sector of the population, farmers, who know all about work. Come rain or shine they are out in it all looking after their livestock. No sick days for them. No claiming off the state. But yet, this Government seems determined to do away with them.

But to finish back on topic, 9.3million people - a fifth of the working age population - were 'economically inactive' at the end of last year; not working or looking for a job.

Time to instil, from the nursery upwards, that work isn’t a dirty word. In fact, it’s something to be proud of.