From the BBC:
The study, based on a survey of 11,000 13- to 16-year-olds, is an attempt to map the job ambitions of teenagers against the employment market up to 2020. It shows teenagers have a weak grasp of the availability of jobs - and that large numbers will be aiming for jobs that are in short supply. For instance, there are 10 times as many people aiming for jobs in the culture, media and sports sector than there are jobs likely to be available.(1)
And even though almost a quarter of jobs are in the distribution, hotels and restaurant category, only about one in 40 youngsters are considering careers in these industries.(2) Fewer than one in 30 young people are considering jobs in banking and finance, even though one in five jobs are expected to be in this sector.(3)
This "misalignment" could mean long-term problems for young people, the report says, because they are making decisions about qualifications and subjects with little awareness of the jobs market ahead of them.(4)
1) Yes, we covered that here.
2) Because they are not particularly glamourous and there's no hope of a superstar salary. But you do not need to dedicate ten or twenty years of your childhood, adolescence and early life to landing that dream job at McDonalds or UPS; if you fail to break into the hallowed ranks of pop stars, TV presenters, Premier League footballers etc despite your best efforts, then fair enough, you apply for a job in a shop or a café or a warehouse and work your way up. Hence and why I ended up as an accountant rather than Formula One racing driver or a record producer.
3) F-ing hell. There's your "misalignment" right there. Of course we need people to do the bookkeeping and run the banks' payments systems, this is all good stuff and the economy wouldn't function nearly as well without it, but it can't possibly required one person to do the bookkeeping or run the banks' payment systems for every four* people actually doing something useful, can it?
4) See 2). So what? You don't need to spend your whole adolescence building up skills, qualifications and contacts to break into the rarefied world of lorry drivers and hotel night managers.
* We could knock off a further % of people in public and private sector non-jobs to arrive at an even worse ratio, like one for every three and a half.
Tuesday, 19 March 2013
"Misalignment"
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6 comments:
if you fail to break into the hallowed ranks of pop stars, TV presenters, Premier League footballers etc despite your best efforts, then fair enough, you apply for a job in a shop or a café or a warehouse and work your way up
Only that there is a growing subset of the population, mostly middle-class kids, that won't accept not achieving their late teen dreams, and actually end up clinically depressed when failing. So on the way, it's probably wise that someone actually tells them it may not actually happen that you will become a successfull photographer/journalist/talking head or whatever.
"This "misalignment" could mean long-term problems for young people, the report says, because they are making decisions about qualifications and subjects with little awareness of the jobs market ahead of them"
It says a lot about the so-called "survey", presumably a box-ticking exercise, that they could talk to 11,000 teenagers and have no idea how teenagers think. AFAICS, 90% of teenagers aren't interested in looking to see where they can most likely get a job, they are looking to get a job in something that they are interested in and, thanks to modern yoof culcha not many are interested in the hospitality trade or lorry driving.
Kj, you can tell them, they won't listen.
Because all the celebrities and the media keep putting out the propaganda that "If you work hard enough you can achieve your dream" because the media and celebrities don't want to admit that it was sheer blind luck or family connections which got them their job, they have to pretend it was hard work.
B, you generalise.
Rather unsurprisingly, most people end up doing a sensible job. To dismiss "90% of teenagers" and "yoof cultcha" is a bit too Daily Mail for me.
I'm quite sure that back in the 1950s a lot of youngster dreamed of being the next Elvis, James Dean, Craig Breedlove, Fangio, whatever.
As you've pointed out, dreaming of being a Formula One Racing driver and ending doing a sensible job are not mutually exclusive, nor did I say that 90% of teenagers were swayed by "yoof culcha", merely that the 90% are wanting to do something that interests them. Sure, a lot are interested in media sort of jobs, but a fair chunk of that 90% are also interested in things like engineering, farming, catering and other useful things like that. They're just not thinking "I'm going to go for a lorry drivers, job, even though I'm bored rigid by the thought of being a lorry driver, because that's where I'm most likely to get a job", because they are teenagers and teenagers don't generally think like that (thank God).
B, Elvis used to be a lorry driver!
So what it boils down to is, are people nowadays realistic enough to stop "chasing their dream" once they realise that it ain't happening and get a proper job? I would assume that people today are no more or less realistic than they ever were.
You can always do a day job and play in a rock band at weekends, set up a blog, do am-dram, join a local Sunday League team etc.
"I would assume that people today are no more or less realistic than they ever were."
So would I, but if you are a conslutant being paid money to do a "survey", I suppose that doesn't wash.
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