Inside the Mind of a Young NEET
Peter Hyman and Shuab Gamote
Inside the Mind of a Young NEET is based on direct testimony from over 400 young people across Britain, co-authored by Peter Hyman and Shuab Gamote. It argues that Britain must stop blaming the one million young people not in education, employment or training, known as NEETs, for a system that has let them down.
Co-written by Peter Hyman, mid-fifties white ex-headteacher and political strategist, and Shuab Gamote, a mid-twenties Black researcher and policy advisor from Manchester.
They have spent months travelling across the UK listening to more than 400 young people who are NEET (not in education, employment or training). This included care leavers, young carers, graduates, those with mental health or neurological diverse conditions.
To feed into Alan Milburn’s independent review, they did something simple – really listen. Not to statistics. Not to officials. To the young people themselves.
What they heard from the young people was stark. A resilient, talented generation has been failed by a system designed for a world that no longer exists.
School left them unprepared for the real world. From Year 7 to GCSE, young people said school offered no practical life skills. Rigid structures crushed those who didn’t fit the mould.
Then Covid robbed them of socialisation and work experience. Years of lockdown at the most crucial years became habits of withdrawal that many never fully shook off.
And then finally when trying to get a job, the door was locked. Entry level jobs demanding years of experience. Hundreds of applications disappearing into silence.
Every transition felt like a cliff edge, not a springboard. And at almost every crucial moment, there was no trusted adult to catch them.
This isn’t just a welfare issue or an employment statistic. It is, as the report sets out, a story of national neglect. The words of these 400 young people should be a spur to action.
Download the full report below
Reports like this should not just be available as downloadable PDF files. It's only fair that they should be easily accessible to people who only have mobile phones for web access, not laptops, desktop PCs or printers. Richly illustrated A4 PDF pages do not adapt to small mobile screens. The report needs to be available as HTML via a separate link.
I've been reading the report 'Inside the mind of a young NEET' with interest. While I'm really looking forward to engaging in more depth with the content I did feel the need to get in touch about a specific use of language.
On p7, point 5, you use the phrase "The feeling of being branded by peers as a retard for being in the bottom set". I would suggest that if this specific language was used by participants then you at least put the word "retard" in speech marks - however it would be significantly preferable to use alternative wording on this point.
Use of this slur is not appropriate for this document and unfortunately undermines the hard work which has gone into its production.