How capitalism fails youth
EVEN AT the height of the
so-called boom, one in ten young people in Britain were out of work,
training or education. Recession-hit, it is now home to a million
unemployed youth. A recent book by Fran Abrams, Learning to Fail,
highlights this systemic failure. One of the first images in the book is
the blowing up of the Beaston Clark glassworks chimney in Barnsley,
which had stood for 117 years. The book is about the changing nature of
work, how it has impacted on today’s generation, or as the subtitle
brutally puts it: How Society Lets Young People Down.
Written before and during the
onset of the present economic crisis, it offers a deeper look into the
causes of long-term youth unemployment. A mixture of objective
fact-finding and the experiences of eight young people who are
interviewed throughout, this is a thought-provoking book. It does not
have, nor claims to have, all the answers.
In September 2007, 670,000
reached school leaving age. By then, 20,000 had already dropped out of
education, 30,000 were missed out of government surveys, 40,000 were
Neet (not in education, employment or training) five months after
finishing. That means that around one in seven school leavers were
unable to find a suitable job or college course after finishing school.
The young people in, or on the fringes of, this section of society, are
who the book concentrates on.
The above figures, and those
for youth unemployment, had been slowly creeping up during the economic
boom. They are now accelerating quickly. Learning to Fail opens with the
statement that "the number of unemployed 18-24 year-olds in Great
Britain rose by 70% between February 2008 and February 2009". The
failures of capitalist society towards young people will be hugely
amplified by the economic crisis.
Young people born during
Margaret Thatcher’s rule and beyond face an almost entirely different
set of industries and jobs to those of their parents. British heavy
industry has shrunk massively, and those working in these industries are
largely older workers. These industries, and linked to them the idea of
a job for life, are a closed door to young people. This is partially
because of the changing nature of the British economy. It is also
because of the setbacks to trade unions organising to defend jobs and
conditions, as well as the lack of opportunities for young people,
something which the book does not touch on.
Apprenticeships, especially
the kind that lead to qualifications and jobs, are virtually
non-existent. For the 670,000 school leavers of 2007, Fran Abrams
estimates that just 8,000 will complete an apprenticeship of this kind.
Vocational education in schools has risen in the last few years.
Incredibly, it looks likely to be targeted by Alistair Darling for cuts.
Workplace education, ‘learning on the job’, has been cut massively by
employers only looking at their immediate profit levels. Yet they
complain that young people don’t have the skills to work, and that too
much is spent on education!
Of the jobs available, many
are temporary, in bad conditions, and on low pay. One of the areas
investigated by Abrams is Dearne Valley, a former mining and steel area
of South Yorkshire. There are around 12,000 jobs in the area now,
compared to 9,000 in the early 1980s. Yet unemployment is one of the
highest in the country. Of the 12,000 jobs, the vast majority are in
call centres and warehouses. These jobs hold no appeal, no opportunities
and no security. Trade unions will have to assert themselves in these
workplaces to change that situation, something that can only come about
on the basis of struggle.
There is clearly a gulf
between what is on offer for young people today and what was on offer
for older workers when they completed education. The disintegration of
the ‘family unit’ cannot be blamed for the increase in youth
unemployment and alienation, as Tory Iain Duncan Smith attempts to do in
an interview – and any future Tory government will do so, too. Changes
in education spending mean that only one in three secondary schools has
a qualified careers advisor as part of its staff. The government’s
careers advice service for 16-19 year olds, Connexions, is severely
underfunded and target driven. A large majority of young people do not
benefit from its services in a meaningful way.
This has an impact on young
people’s choices for education. When there are reported shortages in
computing, information technology courses boom. In a ‘brave, new
economy’ based on soft skills, is it any wonder that media and business
studies have boomed? This is especially true as education institutions,
especially universities, reorient towards courses they can sell. Fran
Abrams writes: "Each year 160,000 people [in England] embarked on
courses in hairdressing. Less than one-tenth of those were trainees
taking day-release courses at college. The prospects for the rest looked
mediocre, at best: the total number of working hairdressers in England
at the time was 145,000 – so there were actually the same number of
hairdressers – including trainees – as there were hairdressing
students".
In a situation where young
people can be left without careers advice, it is clear that even with
the will to work and train, that is not enough to get a job. With
vacancies dropping, it is getting harder, especially when competing
against more experienced workers who have been made redundant. This
exposes the inadequacy of the government’s answers to youth
unemployment. They all boil down to offering extra training and
experience, falling far short of what is needed. As ever, the vast
majority of young people are prepared to train and work hard. But
suitable jobs are not available for everyone.
A programme of creating jobs,
linked to the education system, could solve that problem. More
fundamentally, if investment in jobs and public services could be relied
on in advance, then a certain amount of new jobs created each year could
be relied on and the options available could be clearly presented. But
the capitalist economy, based on a chaotic short-term outlook, does not
operate like that, demanding that skill shortages are filled
immediately. This was the case with plumbing a few years ago. But when
one of the young people in Learning to Fail looks for work, there are no
plumbing vacancies countywide.
Learning to Fail also tackles
the social issues around youth unemployment, and young people excluded
from society. The differing situations for black and Asian young people,
and women, are examined, although inconclusively. The idea of some link
between the near-full employment and low divorce rates of the 1950s and
60s is investigated, concluding "Divorce may have been uncommon up until
the 1970s, but unhappy families were not".
This book looks at some of
the most important issues around alienation from education, work and
society, before the economic crisis. Among youth, there was an
increasing layer who have been failed by capitalism. This is set to grow
significantly and will be an issue that directly affects everyone.
Learning to Fail is well meaning but short on helpful answers, and is
absolutely clear that whoever forms the next government will not solve
the problem. Youth unemployment will be a major issue for society to
tackle, but one that capitalism cannot.
Ben Robinson
Learning to Fail: how society lets young
people down
By Fran Abrams
Published by Routledge, 2009, £18.99
