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Recruitment & HR

Young people are being conditioned to pass exams, not to enter the workplace

Macauley Quinn, vice-president of the IOSH, discusses the challenges young people face when transitioning from education to the workplace.

Opinion
4 min read
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When headlines are warning that young people are stressed, disengaged or considering leaving their jobs, it is tempting to question Gen Z’s approach to work, but perhaps we are looking at the wrong factor.

Research from the Institution of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH) found that almost half of young workers believe their employers prioritise performance targets over their health and mental wellbeing. More than four in 10 said they left education without a clear understanding of workplace health, safety and wellbeing, while one in three are actually considering leaving a job due to how it’s designed.

These figures are concerning but should not come as a surprise to businesses. Too many young people are entering the workplace equipped with tools to tackle exams, the school setting and academia, yet unprepared for the realities of working life.

Speaking to young workers supported by Youth Fed, a charity aiding young people into employment across the North West, a common theme emerged: they did not feel ready.

For Antonella Semeria, her first job in a warehouse felt like being “dropped in the deep end,” with little guidance, little opportunity to ask questions and little confidence in raising concerns that could make a difference. Lewis Gretton echoed that experience, describing how he was often told what to do but rarely shown how to do it. Both explained that simple measures, including shadowing experienced colleagues, would have made a significant difference.

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These are not stories of a generation unwilling to work but experiences of young people expected to navigate unfamiliar workplaces without the confidence, knowledge or support to succeed.

The problems often start much earlier.

Schools and universities rightly place emphasis on academic achievement; however, somewhere along the way, practical preparation for working life has been squeezed out. Developing the skills to calculate algebra or analyse Shakespeare are crucial to an all-round education, but so is understanding employment rights, reading and understanding a payslip, recognising unhealthy workplace cultures, and feeling confident enough to alert a manager when workload becomes unmanageable.

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As Youth Fed mentor Duncan Harrison argued, teachers are doing an excellent job with the curriculum provided; the question is whether that curriculum reflects the realities that young people will face once they leave education. Life skills should not be viewed as optional extras – they are fundamental to helping young people thrive beyond the classroom.

The conversation should not stop with education as employers also have a responsibility to design workplaces where young people can succeed.

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Too often, workplace wellbeing is reduced to perks: free fruit, mindfulness apps or occasional wellbeing days. These initiatives have their place, but they don’t address the underlying causes of stress.

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I believe that the best wellbeing strategies are ultimately prevention-focused and ensure that considerations for mental health are taken as seriously as physical action in the modern-day workplace. If an office had a permanent exposed screw that every employee was cutting themselves on upon arrival, the solution wouldn’t be to hand out more plasters, they would remove the screw.

Similar principles apply at work considering that excessive workloads, poor induction, unrealistic expectations and cultures where employees feel unable to speak up cannot be solved with surface-level wellbeing initiatives. Good job design, supportive management and genuine psychological safety are far more effective than reacting after burnout has already taken hold.

Both Antonella and Lewis described Youth Fed’s one-on-one support as transformative and discussed that their help extended beyond CV writing to building confidence, something far more difficult to quantify. Having someone believing in their long-term talent and ability, listening without judgement and help navigating setbacks established their belief that they belong in the workplace.

Confidence is often what employers say they are looking for, yet confidence rarely appears overnight. It is built through guidance, patience and opportunity.

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The debate around young workers is too often framed around resilience, as though the solution is for individuals to simply toughen up, but resilience cannot compensate for poor workplace design, inadequate preparation or a lack of support.

If we want young people to establish long, productive and fulfilling careers, we need to stop treating the transition from education to employment as a leap into the unknown. Schools should equip students with the practical skills they require at work while employers should be investing in meaningful induction and mentoring, and workplace wellbeing should focus on preventing problems rather than simply responding to them.

Young workers are not lacking ambition or talent. What many are lacking is a system that prepares them for work and supports them once they arrive. Changing this would benefit not only the next generation, but every workplace that depends on it.

Macauley Quinn is vice-president of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) 

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