By Jack Parsons from Big Youth Group

A majority of young people don’t particularly enjoy being in education, in fact it’s been reported that a fifth of British teenagers drop out of education at 16 — the compulsory age. But why? Research suggests that the majority of teenagers that drop out is due to poor career advice! These statistics are surprising but not shocking, as young people tech to give feedback about getting old, unnecessary or unhelpful career adice. What if you were merely told the paths you could take through the subjects that we’re available at school. The need for more personalized early careers advice is stronger than eve. It’s very poor how education emphasises the need for a job but doesn’t give us the information or skills necessary to get there!

There’s such a strong emphasis on continuing your education after 16 in order to gain a well-paying job. Throughout school were told that if we don’t continue on it would equate to failure, but not every young person wants to work a 9 to 5, some are interested in the idea of self-employment. However, education places young people in a box to conform to regular jobs, this leaves many young people feeling discouraged especially if they don’t enjoy being in education, some people have dreams of careers completely outside of the usual spectrum and that’s fine! But they should also be able to gain advice and support on ways to achieve their goals. There should be information readily available for young people if they want to stray away from the usual career ventures such as: starting a business, getting into the fashion industry, learning how to code, managing finance and so on… information like that is vital when a young person decides to drop out of education.

Teachers and education affect young people more than they know, through school you come across a wide range of careers that you could potentially follow, you’re pushed into attending college and graduating university, yet if only teachers could touch on the idea that it’s not necessary for young individuals to graduate and on the potential non-regular jobs and opportunities that are available. This is what BYG is about, we provide services and support for young people to help them reach their goals no matter how big and bold they seem, we will try our best to support every young person that comes to us.