Why Are So Many Young People Starting To Feel Like A “Lost Generation”?

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Almost a million young people in the UK are part of what is being called a lost generation. They're not in employment, education, or training. So, how has this happened? Well, we're here in Dudley, where many 16- to 24-year-olds find themselves in exactly that situation.

[00:00:21]Alex grew up in care and left school at 16.

[00:00:25]>> I've got at least probably about two friends who got jobs out of 20 or 30.

[00:00:30]>> It's hard, isn't it?

[00:00:31]>> Yeah, I know, man. And that's only because they've got it from family, cuz their dad works with them or something, you know what I mean? I can apply for universal credit, but I've already done it, but I don't want to stay in that for even longer than 2 3 months. I want to I want a job ASAP, you know what I mean? I don't want to be on the dole. At this point, I might as well go into the army, you know what I mean?

[00:00:47]Because that's the only thing that's on these job application websites, because you don't need any experience.

[00:00:53]>> Unless something is urgently done, the number of young people in this position is predicted to rise to one in six in the next five years.

[00:01:01]But the majority really want to work.

[00:01:04]>> It's a catch-22.

[00:01:06]Young people are being told they don't have enough experience when they apply for jobs, but how will they get that experience if they can't get a job?

[00:01:14]>> The job market is just horrible. It's just It's It's shocking. Like on Indeed, all you see People might say talks about it, joking about it all the time on my Facebook page. It's care, army, care, army. Or Or you could be a retail manager, but you haven't got the experience, so you can't apply for those jobs. There's no job you can apply for.

[00:01:30]>> Courtney went to seven different schools within a few years because of her disruptive behavior. She thinks she'd have kept studying and got a job if she'd had the right support.

[00:01:40]>> I just feel like the teachers are very out of touch with what the kids are going through nowadays. Like it's really hard in this generation, especially. By the time I was in year 11, I was going to school for an hour a week. So, really, I knew there was no chance of me passing my GCSEs. I only sat two of mine.

[00:01:54]>> And for some who do finish school, the struggle to find work can lead them down a path of crime to make money.

[00:02:01]>> Uh some of my friends, they didn't go to college. They left after school.

[00:02:05]Stopped uh stopped learning. And uh now they can't really find a job because of that. And obviously now their life, you know, they might resort to something illegal, something that's not not good for them.

[00:02:17]You know?

[00:02:18]So it's you know, that's how it goes.

[00:02:20]>> Cycling in the park during school hours, 16-year-old Mason doesn't know where to start.

[00:02:26]>> With school, I got kicked out at 14 cuz of like truancy and behavior problems. I don't like being in the house.

[00:02:33]So like I wouldn't want to do the benefits thing. I'd rather try and find a job and like get get to doing stuff.

[00:02:41]>> A lot of the young people we've spoken to are smart and capable and articulate.

[00:02:46]But for one reason or another, they've fallen out of the system and no one has pulled them back in.