How are England’s young people coping with lockdown and the uncertainty of their futures?
By Emma Watson & Professor Louise Archer (UCL IOE)
The ASPIRES project started in 2009, aiming to investigate the science and career aspirations of young people in England. A cohort of GenZ young people (those born around the millennium) and their parents were recruited to participate in regular interviews every few years. From May to August 2020, during the initial COVID-19 lockdown, the research team recorded in-depth interviews with 48 of these young individuals, at age 20 and 21.
The results were illuminating. Just over half of the young people identified some positive outcomes such as having more time to reflect, grow and recuperate, but more than 87% of them had experienced negative impacts as a result of the lockdown and pandemic. These included increased anxieties about the future, detrimental impacts on their social lives and emotional wellbeing, and loss of essential income from casual part-time and holiday work. For example, one of the young people, Luna* said:
“I’m going to massively struggle because I haven’t had the kind of financial stability and the kind of jobs I would normally have over Easter. Even though I didn’t have to…pay extra in living costs, I have to pay rent and I’ve got no income, so actually it’s been quite worrying. And it’s been really also hard, the social aspect, not being able to see my friends, my boyfriend. So that’s kind of, again, really hard.”
Many of the participants spoke about struggles with their mental health, both generally, and as a result of the pandemic. One participant reflected “I do struggle with anxiety, and it tends to be really bad during exam period especially. And this whole [COVID] situation hasn’t really helped.”
The ONS also reporting that young people are worrying more about their finances and seeing a decline in their mental health during lockdown, underlining how essential it is to make mental health services accessible and known to young people who might be struggling during this time.
The ASPIRES research found that this generation may be missing out on opportunities to get careers advice. In 2017, the research team shared findings that career provision in schools in England may be failing to reach those who need it most, amplifying existing inequalities in gender, ethnicity and social class. Most students reported receiving careers provision on a ‘self-referral’ basis, with the result that many did not manage to access support. The project findings indicated that some schools may not be meeting government requirements for careers education.
Evidence from the most recent ASPIRES interviews suggests that the same pattern of patchy and patterned access to careers support may continue into higher education. Access to support was particularly poor among young people in jobs and training routes. For example, Roger*, an apprentice, described how he had to find out about apprenticeships all on his own as his school only catered to university routes:
“I found it just looking through things and then talking to people, and then yeah, it fell into place…You get one [careers appointment] in your entire time at school.”
Students planning to take placement years as part of their degree often had limited support from the careers department, like Bob* who said “the responsibility of finding it was ultimately on ourselves… if we couldn’t find one then we would just go back to a normal third year”. This could be a problem for students without existing connections in relevant fields as many young people on placement years used existing contacts to secure placements.
We were struck by the emotional and social intelligence of the young people. It felt like at this life stage, in the current climate, they were more informed than ever about political and social issues. Many were passionate about ending racism and talked about their support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Others spoke about the global climate crisis and the future of their planet, with some hoping to work in environmental fields in the future.
Many young people were concerned about the economy, especially in the wake of the pandemic and Brexit. Specifically, they spoke about doubts over availability of affordable housing and jobs for their generation.
Davina* shared her worries:
“getting a job, getting a house…especially like with the pandemic — am I going to get a job when I graduate? Don’t know — I might not, I might not for a while. I know people who are like late 30s who still never bought a house. Which is like something that’s like unheard of in like my parents’ generation.
“With jobs again it’s a supply and demand thing…the main problem is that there aren’t enough jobs, or too many graduates, however you want to look at it…Obviously the potential massive crash of the economy is going to mess up an entire generation’s future. My generation will probably be the worst affected by that, because obviously we’ve got our whole lives to get on with…Getting jobs and finding houses and whatnot is already hard enough as it is for people of my age or like my generation and then I think obviously this whole thing is going to make it probably even harder.”
By listening to the experiences of these young people, we have produced a set of recommendations to help this generation as they begin their adult lives:
- Enable greater and easier access to mental health and youth services, especially for those who are no longer in formal education, to help address the impact of the pandemic and recession on well-being and employment.
- Ensure support, advice and guidance reaches all GenZ workers, especially those who are self-employed and/or working in SMEs.
- Government, employers and other organisations to take active steps to learn from the views and experiences of GenZ, to meaningfully inform their policies and support social change for the better.
You can access the full report and all the ASPIRES recommendations online.
* All names in this blog and the report are pseudonyms to keep participant’s identities confidential.
ASPIRES 3 is a longitudinal, mixed-methods research study led by Professor Louise Archer, Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education at UCL Institute of Education. During the early months of the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, the research team were lucky enough to continue their research online, interviewing nearly 70 participants who have been involved in the research for over ten years.
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More about the authors
Emma Watson
Emma joined UCL Institute of Education earlier this year working on the ASPIRES 3 project. The project aims to investigate the science and career aspirations and trajectories of a tracked cohort of 10 to 23 year olds in England. Before joining the research team, Emma worked in science communication for the Royal Society and Institute of Physics.
Professor Louise Archer
Louise Archer is the Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education at UCL Institute of Education. Her research focuses on educational identities and inequalities, particularly in relation to gender, ethnicity and social class. She directs a number of large studies focusing on understanding young people’s engagement with science/ STEM in both school and out-of-school settings, including ASPIRES, Youth Equity + STEM, Primary Science Capital: A whole school approach and Making Spaces projects.
