Britain’s “Lost Generation”? What Working With Young People Has Taught Me
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
What years of working with young people has taught me about support, resilience and mentoring.
Recently, a major report featured by Sky News warned that Britain could be at risk of creating a “lost generation” of young people and, honestly, I was not surprised by it.
As someone who has spent more than 16 years working with young people across primary schools, mainstream education, colleges, pupil referral units and one-to-one coaching, I see many of these challenges first hand every single day.
And to be clear, I do not believe young people themselves are the problem.
I think many young people today are trying to find their way through a world that feels more pressured, more uncertain and more emotionally demanding than ever before, often without the right support around them at the right time.
Young People Are Carrying More Than People Realise
One thing I genuinely think many adults underestimate is just how much pressure young people are under nowadays.
At 14, 15 and 16 years old, many are being told that exams could shape the rest of their lives, while they are also trying to work out who they are, where they fit in, what they want from life and what their future might look like.
At the same time, they are dealing with friendship groups, social pressure, confidence issues, identity, relationships and constant comparison through social media.
I sometimes think we forget that young people should still be allowed to be young people.
Social Media Is A Factor, But It Is Not The Whole Story
Social media absolutely plays a role. I do not think anyone working closely with young people could deny that.
Young people now have instant access to content, opinions, lifestyles and pressures that previous generations simply did not grow up with. Some are regularly exposed to things emotionally that they are not yet mature enough to fully process or understand.
But I also think social media gets blamed for everything far too easily.
In my experience, the bigger issue is often what sits around it:
lack of emotional support
lack of trusted adults
lack of conversation
lack of boundaries
not always having safe spaces to process what they are experiencing online
Because when young people do not feel heard or understood, pressure simply builds up beneath the surface.
Support Often Comes Too Late
One of the biggest changes I have noticed over the years is the increasing need for pastoral support, mentoring, emotional regulation support and mental health support for young people.
The problem is that support is often delayed.
I have lost count of the number of times I have seen young people waiting months for support, only for school attendance to drop in the meantime, anxiety to increase or engagement with services to disappear altogether before help finally arrives.
And at that point, the opportunity has often been missed.
And by that point, the impact can already be significant.
Problems rarely stay as one problem. They have a knock-on effect.
Unfortunately, many schools, services and professionals are trying to support increasing levels of need while also being under enormous pressure themselves.
The Most Powerful Thing? Conversation
If I had to summarise what genuinely helps young people most in one word, it would simply be this:
Conversation.
Not talking at young people. Talking with them.
Some of the most impactful work I have seen has come through relationship building, trust and giving a young person the space to speak openly without fear of judgement.
Sometimes young people do not need somebody to immediately “fix” everything.
Sometimes they need somebody who listens properly first.
That is why I believe mentors for young people are incredibly important.
And whilst teachers, tutors and school staff play a hugely important role in young people’s lives and form a crucial part of a young person’s wider support network, mentoring provides something slightly different.
I mean professionals with the training, experience and expertise to provide meaningful one-to-one support and become another trusted adult in a young person’s life - and for some young people, perhaps the first or only trusted adult they truly feel comfortable talking to.
Somebody who can guide, challenge, support and help them reflect on where they are now and where they want to get to.
Young People Need Resilience As Well As Support
Mental health support and SEND support are incredibly important.
But I also think we have to be careful that support does not unintentionally become limitation.
Young people need support, but they also need strategies, confidence, coping tools and resilience. They need to understand that setbacks, challenges and mistakes are part of life and not proof that they have failed.
This is one reason I believe mindset and resilience work are so important.
I rarely see schools directly teach young people about things like growth mindset, coping strategies, emotional resilience or how to approach setbacks in a healthy and solutions-focused way.
Certainly not in a proactive way, at least. Quite often, these important life skills are introduced once a young person is already in crisis or significantly struggling, rather than earlier when they may have helped prevent things from escalating in the first place.
Yet these are often the exact skills young people need most outside the classroom.
Every Young Person Should Have Access To A Mentor
If I could change one thing tomorrow for young people in the UK, it would be this:
Every young person would have access to a mentor.
Not just academic support and not just behaviour intervention.
A genuine mentor or coach who has dedicated time each week to build trust, have meaningful conversations and support that young person consistently.
Quite often, underneath anxiety, disengagement, challenging behaviour or lack of motivation, there is simply a young person trying to work out who they are and where they belong.
In my experience, once a young person feels heard, understood and supported properly, that is often where positive change begins.
Proactive, accessible support available at the right time.
If you are looking for specialist coaching or mentoring support for a young person, parent consultations or professional mentoring training, you can find out more about my services on my website.
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