Alan Milburn’s interim report on young people and work is a tough read. Nearly one million young people aged 16 to 24 aren’t in education, employment or training. That’s one in eight young people, and the number keeps going up.
Over the past decade, the number of young people who are NEET because of a health condition has gone up by 70%. For those young people, mental health is now the most commonly cited reason, and that figure has nearly doubled. The report is clear that this isn’t down to young people themselves. Milburn is explicit that the overwhelming majority of young people who are NEET want to find work, education or training but are being held back by factors well beyond their control or influence. Poverty, inequality, fewer entry level jobs and health, welfare and employment services that don’t work well enough, all contribute to the problem.
The report also captures something much more personal. Employers talk about young people arriving in the workplace without the confidence that they need. And young people describe feeling cut off, not just from work, but from education and community life too. Milburn is clear that work offers far more than a wage. It gives people self-respect, independence and a sense of contributing to something. When young people can’t access those things, the cost is often so much more than lost earnings.
When Milburn spoke to employers about what they need from young people, they shared that while literacy and numeracy are important, they value just as much, if not more, what the report calls life skills: the ability to communicate, to collaborate and work as a team, to be creative and adaptable in a world where jobs are changing faster than ever.
At Mindapples, we have always believed that taking care of your mind is something everyone can learn, and that the skills it builds are the same whether you are seven or forty-seven. That belief has taken us into some very different rooms.
Mindapples started in 2008 as a grassroots campaign built around one simple question: what’s the five-a-day for your mind? Since then we have delivered mental health and wellbeing workshops to some of the world’s largest employers, including Goldman Sachs, Tesco, Royal London and HS2, and to students and staff in schools, colleges and universities across the UK. The content is the same in every setting, from handling pressure and building resilience, to knowing yourself, staying motivated, collaborating well and supporting the people around you.
What strikes us every time is that the conversations are so similar. Adults in corporate settings tell us they struggle with confidence, with managing stress, with knowing how and when to ask for help and with navigating uncertainty. Young people in schools and colleges tell us so many of the same things. They worry about fitting in, how to manage setbacks, how to understand and cope with the emotions they are feeling and how to build the confidence to take part in the world around them. These feelings don’t just appear on the first day of a job. They are there long before anyone sets foot in a workplace, which is exactly why the support needs to start earlier too.
What Milburn’s report makes clear is that there is no single solution to a problem this complex and deep-rooted. But alongside the systemic change it calls for, the report also points to a need for support that builds confidence, develops life skills and helps young people feel ready to participate in education, in work and in life. And that is where Mindapples comes in, working in classrooms, in universities and in workplaces, helping people of all ages understand their minds and develop the habits and skills that help them thrive.
If you’d like to find out more about our work in schools, universities and the workplace, get in touch at hello@mindapples.org