Ian Ellis: Northern Ireland craves a strategy to meet the needs of today's young people starting out in life

In a way, it's like the proverbial blank sheet of paper.

Some will seek employment, others a place in further or higher education, and others will just feel completely at a loss.

Indeed, when it comes to the process of filling in that blank sheet of paper, immediately hurdles arise. They come in many forms, from examination results to apprenticeship availability to actual job opportunities.

For a young person to have a clear sense of what he or she really wants to do in life is a distinct advantage.

That sense of vocation can be a great spur to achieving the necessary qualifications or experience, whereas if there is no clear idea about the path of life ahead there can be a certain floundering.

That is never a good start, but nonetheless direction can be found, especially if there are engaged parents and good mentors.

This all came to mind as I learned about former health secretary Alan Milburn's recently launched interim report entitled, 'Young People and Work', with youth here defined as those from 16 to 24 years of age.

It is the result of a UK-wide review and is ‘interim’ in the sense that it is a survey of the actual situation, to be followed in the autumn by a further report on just what should be done about its findings.

So, if this report is the diagnosis, the treatment plan is yet to come.

However, to continue with the medical analogy, the prognosis is quite worrying because Mr Milburn's report shows that unless there is serious commitment to following through with the necessary actions – something never to be taken for granted in political matters - there is a decidedly poor outlook.

A particularly huge concern is the number of young people now not in education, employment or training (known as NEETs). Since the report was printed, it has crossed the one million mark.

Speaking at the launch of his report, Mr Milburn said that far too many young people are reaching adulthood only to find the door to opportunity closed.

He said the NEET term is an “ugly” one, but also one with “ugly consequences”, which he described as “aspirations thwarted, confidence drained, futures narrowed before they've properly begun”.

He added that during the course of his research he had met, spoken to and heard the views of hundreds of young people, observing: “Not one of them wanted to end up being not in education, employment or training.”

It was a striking comment, because so often one hears the generalisation that nowadays young people just don't want to work, preferring a life on benefits.

Moreover, Mr Milburn said that, overall, 84% of NEET young people surveyed by his team said they wanted a job or they wanted to be in training, adding: “So I do not accept the caricature of a generation that is not interested in work. This is a generation that wants the chance to work.”

While there may be some who want to idle, it is clearly plain wrong to characterise all young people in such a way. To do so is, in its own way, a betrayal of that generation.

Mr Milburn pointed out that while 20 years ago approximately four in 10 young people had never had a job, today it is six in 10. The report starkly comments: “We are at risk of a lost generation.”

As experience shows, it is all the more difficult to get a job if one does not have experience or has never had one.

The demoralising experience of applying for job after job but not succeeding, if indeed the application is even acknowledged, is bound to drive many young people in on themselves, seeking solace, among other ways, in social media and scrolling on their phones into the small hours of the night.

Getting started in the workplace is key, but also key is having an economy that is growing and thereby providing more jobs. That means economic policies that make it easier for firms to take on young people, either for their first jobs or for apprenticeships and training.

However, the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action has said that recent cuts following the introduction of the Local Growth Fund “are actively dismantling youth employability services delivered by the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, stripping away support at the very moment it is needed most”.

Yet the UK government says its Local Growth Fund in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is intended to make funding available up to March 2029 “to drive growth and improve living standards” across the three devolved regions.

The dots clearly don't join up here.

Certainly, Northern Ireland, along with the rest of the UK, needs a really robust strategy to meet the needs of today's young people, the very people upon whom society will depend in the years to come.

Canon Ian Ellis is a former editor of The Church of Ireland Gazette