When young people look ahead ten years they typically hope to be doing a job that they love, be married or in a stable relationship with children, and living in their own home. These are the findings of a new piece of research from ThinkBritain which paints a picture of a generation of serious, positive, hard-working young people. 70 per cent of 14-16 year-olds list one of their top priorities as being ‘finding a job they love’. 56 per cent want to be married or in stable relationship and / or have a family, and 54 per cent would like to move out of their own home. By contrast just six per cent want to be famous, five per cent rich enough to not have to work and only one per cent claim to think designer brands are important.
Researchers surveyed and spoke with more than 1000 14-16 year-olds and their parents. Two-thirds see setbacks as an opportunity to prove themselves and work harder, 65 per cent would prefer to work than claim benefits even if it meant they had less money, three-quarters want to achieve more than their parents did, and more than 60 per cent believe that getting on in life has more to do with hard work than luck.
Young people do have some unrealistic aspirations though. None of them expected to be unemployed at any time in their life even though the current unemployment rate for 16-24 year-olds is 20 per cent, and they expect to earn £14,000 a year more than the average wage once they are working.
A separate piece of research among 16-25 year-olds by The Prince’s Trusts suggests that slightly older young people are less optimistic. One in three expects to claim benefits at some point in their life and this rises among those who achieved less than five GCSES graded A*-C. The trust would like to see more vocational support for those young people.
