Generally, young people (not everyone, but the majority) don't learn work skills from the previous generation any more, and don't mix with them either. They don't learn the culture of work, or the work ethic at an early age. It's put off until the late 20s, or 30s, when some people realise that they'd better sort themselves out. Those that eventually do learn have a serious shock to their system and try and carry on their old habits at the weekend. Hence the phenomenon of binge drinking and drugging.

Heard of "middle youth"? (I think I fall into that category!)

Those that do learn skills from their previous generation are the lucky ones: kids who have connections. I'm not necessarily talking old-school tie stuff, but it does include aspirational, pushy, middle class people. Whatever, it's kids who are lucky enough to have a mentor, or maybe an uncle or a dad who has a business that they can join in some shape or form.

I had an extension built a couple of years ago. The two guys who built it were two tough lads from Dudley. The elder one was very bright, and the younger one, the "apprentice", was his nephew. The kid had been given a lucky break, but the elder one made him work very hard, and cut him no slack. In return, the younger one had no choice but to learn a good attitude to work who was well supported by his mother, and to an extent his boss. He couldn't just walk away, cos the people he worked with were his family.

The young lad also was at college, studying for a building qualification. For this type of qualification there is one thing that is absolutely crucial: experience. Of the 18 who were in the class guess how many were actually working, practising the things they were learning? Two!

The whole system doesn't work. I feel sorry for kids. How are they to know better? The commercial world needs fewer and fewer people, because machines and computers do it more profitably.

I'd like to shine a different perspective on this, because in the main it seems to be people older than talking about the lack of desire for work in youth, which I would say is largely true, but is caused by schools who only push people to go to University, and don't care about you progression so long as they can fudge you getting a C (in the main).

I've been working nearly 18 months, I'm 18, on the whole I work with my hands and I'd consider my approach to work aggressive, this is mainly based on the rate at which I would like to progress (and the rate at which HR put obstacles in the way of that) I'm currently doing a degree, so am I an anomaly?
No.
I recently visited BMW Mini in Oxford where lots of the countries larger apprentice employers gathered with DC and the skills Minister to discuss the best way to direct apprenticeships in the future (Employ people who aren't monkeys to devise the NVQ questions and follow the German philosophy). Anyway we took 10 people and other employers took loads. The figures in effect were that the amount of people in education via apprenticeships had gone up exponentially recently.
On the whole this means that people will be gaining work place etiquette, experience and skills, and certainly a lot more than a few years ago.

Anyway to sum up because I've forgotten where I was going, yes there are a lot of scrot bags who've been fucked by the system but if you've got enough nous and drive you'll be fine. The money is quite a nice incentive too.

I agree, schools are part of the problem, in Holland our government encourage them to grow bigger and bigger so the cost will be less ( so they say) but they do'nt care about quality of education. Nevertheless they want everybody to have a degree in sience, or any fancy bollocks position.
Labourers are not interesting to educate for any school , university or any other institution.
And the young people are victim of this idiot idea .
But i also think that Smiffy is right. Young people do not want to mix with older people and they don't want to be told what to do and what to do.

The 'system' is not the problem, it's simply an excuse, and that is the problem. Nobody will take responsibility for anything themselves, including their own life or destiny. Blame the 'system', the govt, their schooling or whatever, but there's always an excuse. Haven't got any money? It can't possibly be because they haven't worked hard enough or tried hard enough to learn. Can't get a job? It can't possibly be that they aren't trying hard enough. It's always somebody elses fault. It grips my shit.

There are issues with the system though, regardless of whether the system is full of lazy dickheads.

It's not schools that are the problem. It's government that only values schools according to their results on specific tests. Now it's about to drop labwork from exam marks and still trying to claim it's going to be valued at the same time. No school will concentrate on practical skills if it has no effect on their ofsted ranking.

I hear your pain Russ took on someone recently with in the week he had pissed of one of our main clients to the point he threw a hammer at him from accross the site!, had taken double what he needed for the job from the merchants on account and failed to turn up on a Monday - "well we all like a drink on the weekend" was his excuse. Pointed out that we all like a drink at the weekend but we all 3 had to work twice as hard cause he was too much of a shit to turn out.

never saw him again which was a shame as he looked just like a Minion and was therefore terrific comedy value.


(for illustration)

Education IS part of the problem V has a 101 stories of little shits being mollycoddled through the school system to be spat out the end as precious little darlings that want the moon on a stick but refuse to take any responsibility for themselves. They are totally unemployable and too thick to go to uni, or Greggs for 5 cups of tea 3 sausage rolls, 2 steak bake and a fudge donought for that matter. One lad came back to school after they secured him an apprenticeship as a chippy "they made me go to Greggs i told them to F off" . Another lass wanted to be a Vet because she liked Horses, vet school is one of the toughest to get in to and she was thick as mince - so they got her work in a local riding school....you gessed it 1 day of shoveling shit and she was off.

Hallelujah!

The problem with the system/government is that they let them be blamed for all of the above. If they had some balls and said, "Don't blame me, sort your own shit out" maybe a few more people would.

People think their owed something and will point the finger when a job or opportunity doesn't fall in their lap.

But everybody is an individual with the capacity to think for themselves. You can't behave like a cock and say 'the system made me like this'. You can't spunk your life up the wall on drink and drugs and say 'the system made me do it'. You can't refuse to learn, try, overcome difficulties in everyday life and say 'the system stopped me being better'. People are still free to pick their own path through life but it seems they're either too scared, or it's just easier to give in to blaming everybody else for their own shortcomings. If you leave school and can't get a job because you fucked it up, it's down to you to remedy it. If you can't support your family because you don't earn enough, that's YOUR problem and YOU need to go and sort it out. If you can't get to work because you only have one car, get another car FFS. How's it my problem to sort out? Why should I have to act like a minicab for every misguided dimwit who tells lies at job interviews? If these nobheads such as my current colleague knock out two kids yet fail to learn how to do a days work or put trousers on it shouldn't be down to us to have to pick up the slack or coax them gently through life. They should stop blaming the 'system'. The system didn't encourage them into unprotected sex, it was a choice they made. Twice. As far as I can see the only one responsible for that is the individual, and having made that mistake, it's down to that individual to knuckle down and sort themselves out so they can actually manage to get to a place of work and support themselves on their own by being capable of doing a simple job like mine. I think those who know me can generally agree I am not Stephen Hawking, and if I can be half decent at something then everybody can.