‘Well, back in my day’, ‘when I was your age’ and ‘well, during my youth’ are all familiar phrases to most young people in our country. The majority of our parents, growing up during the tough times of Thatcherism (before the transformational technical revolution of the early 2000s), believe that it presented more challenges transitioning into early adulthood than now. But did it really?
When considering society, education and employment opportunities, who really experienced a more difficult adolescence?
Your parents may even like to remind you of the drastic changes in society since they were our age. During the 80s and 90s, no doubt, Britain was a much less inclusive space. Women, members of the LGBTQIA+ community and ethnic minorities would have had a much more difficult time accessing basic human rights than now. But now things have begun to change. With an increased awareness of mental health, suicide rates have halved for women, and gone down by 20% for men since 1981. But many would argue that our young people are under more stress than ever…
No doubt, while doing your GCSEs, your parents were reinforcing the importance of getting good grades. Perhaps they may have only scraped a few passes themselves or possibly did extremely well, placing an extra element of pressure upon you.
The fact remains that throughout the 80s the average amount of people leaving school with at least 5 passes at GCSE remained at about 25% whereas in 2019 82% of children achieved this. So why might this be the case? With improved accessibility to resources through the internet, it’s no surprise that us young people are leaving school more qualified and educated than before.
Completing full time education post 16 peaked at 50% in the 80s, dipping in the early 90s where by 2008 the figure was 90% and on an upward spike. Showing that nowadays we are spending more time at school which should lead to increased opportunities for employment. Right? Wrong.
With the rise of AI and increased technology taking jobs that would once belong to young people, along with increased competition for jobs and people having to work for longer before being eligible to collect their pension; it’s not uncommon to hear degree level students leaving university only to be stacking shelves in their local supermarket for minimum wage. Although over the last 30 years youth unemployment has gone down, it cannot be disputed that opportunities for higher paid careers are becoming rare, especially for young people.
So, does our generation have it harder than our parents? Or do all young people regardless of the generation they grown up in struggle to transition into adulthood?
Article by Jessica Walton
References:
Photo Source: Freepik
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN04252/SN04252.pdf