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Number of teenagers not in work or school rises to 10.3% | Education | guardian.co.uk

The number of teenagers out of school and out of work has risen dramatically, fuelled by unemployment rates not seen since the early 1990s.

The proportion of 16- to 18-year-olds not in education, employment or training increased from 9.7% at the end of 2007 to 10.3% at the end of 2008. "This is due to reduced employment amongst young people not in education or training," government statisticians said.

Young men are the worst affected with twice the rate of 16-year-old boys not in work or school than girls. In total there are more than 208,000 teenagers not in training or employment - more than one in ten of the total.

It comes despite record numbers of teenagers staying on at school or college to escape the recession, indicating that it is employment prospects for teenagers that have hit record lows.



Ad astra per aspera
by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 07:50:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]
the thing that scares me is how many I see that are utterly un-employable. I work at a training facility mostly aimed at the 14 - 19 age group and my colleagues are at their wits end with kids coming through whose literacy and numeracy skills are rudimentary at best, and yet compound it with an attitude of "can't try, won't try".

Of course I blame government for causing schools, particularly in the 5 - 11 year age group, to have effectively abandoned that 10% - 20% who aren't going to meet the targets and spoil that statistics. But society still has to cope with them. Somehow.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 03:49:28 PM EST
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then they are are not unemployed (ie not in the labor market), and not in the statistics of unemployment. Thus denied media existence, nobody need care about them...

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 04:14:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Until they're breaking into your house or mugging you in order to survive.  

In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
by THE Twank (yatta blah blah @ blah.com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 04:49:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
it helps you run on a law'n'order platform and increase police rights and budgets against out of control hoodlums who respect nothing.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 06:05:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Sadly true.  But, hey, what's a few thousand more telescree--uh, cameras gonna hurt?

Meh, having lived within stumbling distance of the most dangerous neighborhood in the Murder Capital of the United Kingdom -- where the murder rate is still 1 per 100k lower than that of New York (which is, if I remember correctly, lowest among the big American cities) -- I have to say that my impression is of the Brits being afraid of the bogeyman.

Not to say the the kids aren't occasionally a problem, but mostly the annual Missing White Women Invasion of the Yobs season seems be more of a matter of old people being afraid of young people.  It's quite common in college towns here.

The fear of kids over there puzzled me.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin

by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 06:47:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Not that anyone needs to mug anyone else in Western Europe to survive. Violent crime is wholly voluntary.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 12:13:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Depends on how you define your other options.

There are gaps in the social security systems and if you fall threw them, can not find a job and do not have (or is to proud to use) family and friends you can leech of, you are just about out of legal options. Of course, you can argue that there are better criminal options then the violent ones, but that would depend on your particular set of skills.

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 04:31:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Not in Sweden at least. Socialen will never let you starve or freeze to death, no matter what.

The only exception is if you're a drug addict. Then you do need to commit crimes to finance your habit.

The problem here is dual, one that Sweden has a War on Drugs mentality that would make the US proud, and two, because all the massive centralised insitutions (mental hospitals, narcotics clinics etc) were closed in the 80's because they were considered "inhumane". Which well, was partly true. But the principle was sound, the practice was just a little harsh at times, and they could have been reformed.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Wed Jun 17th, 2009 at 05:41:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I can't speak for other schools, but we haven't abandoned that 10-20%.  If anything, it's the top 10% that I tend to feel guilty about, because the don't cares drain so much time and resources from the rest of the class. The bright kids I have to support in non time-intensive ways, by lending them books on their individual enthusiasms, for instance, and making myself available to talk/supervise internet use at breaktimes if there's something they want to know more about.

Unfortunately, the ones who don't give a damn at 14 didn't give a damn at seven, either. I reckon, even if I can't prove, that we can almost always tell when a child is supported at home. You do get children who are keen to learn despite parents who don't much care, but not many of them. And wits' end just about covers it some days. I'm far enough down the food chain that Sats results don't worry me much as a statistic.  But in terms of individual achievement, they're terrifying. I was told in my initial training that 85% of children who get level 4 (the government target) at age 11 will get "five good GCSEs".  85% of children who don't, won't. That's one hell of a motivation to get the best out of every child you can.

by Sassafras on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 05:32:30 PM EST
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My experience is that the biggest gift a child can have is a parent or parents who cares and is involved with the child's education.  Absent that, there are the "survivor types" who are self starters and overcome all obstacles.  I don't know what the frequency of such individuals is, but I suspect that it is a very poor base on which to build a society.  Natural fecundity alone is an inadequate base for society.  Would that the major religions would "get" that basic fact.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue Jun 16th, 2009 at 10:31:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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