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How do young people

find meaningful

careers? Exploring meaning and purpose for young people

Lucy Pedrick

Contents: Introduction 2

Needs 3

Personal influences 6

Extrinsic Influences 8

Moving Forward 10

‘A person without

purpose is like a ship

without a rudder’

-Thomas Carlyle, Scottish

Philosopher

How do young people find meaningful careers?

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Introduction In a modern world where materialism and hedonism

are advocated more widely than passion and altruism,

the question of how young people find meaningful

careers is perhaps more fundamental than ever before.

Before reaching an answer however, it is first necessary

to define ‘meaningful’. Aristotle once said ‘Where your

talents and the needs of the world collide; there lies

your vocation.’ Organisation 3D Coaching suggest that a

career of true meaning, purpose, is one which combines

the needs of the world with personal strength and

passion.1 William Damon, Professor of Human

Development at Stanford University further supports

Aristotle in his definition of purpose in his book The

Path to Purpose as ‘a stable and generalised intention

to accomplish something that is at the same time

meaningful to the self and consequential for the world beyond the self’2. He suggests that purpose is

both a goal, and provides meaning reaching out to the world. The perennial trio of strength, passion

and altruism is supported in countless psychological and sociological reports over the last fifty years.

Max Weber for example, talks of ‘callings’ that reflect ability, world need for services that these

abilities provide, and enjoyment from meeting those needs. Damon’s initial findings in the area of

youth purpose ‘reveal a society in which purposefulness among young people is the exception rather

than the rule.’

Traditionally, ‘vocation’3 and ‘purpose’ in careers have had a reputation of being used within religion;

particularly the Christian Church. Work within the Church; teaching; medicine; charity work

(administrative or on-the-ground support) and other jobs fuelled by altruism have been recognised

as acceptable life choices; careers with meaning. Outside religion however, vocation or purpose are

both loaded words, often with great stigma attached to them. Perhaps this is because they appear to

offer nothing for the individual, or even have a reputation of being exclusive to the religious. The

reality is that any job from any industry has meaning and worth to offer people, and the evidence so

far supports this.

In 1998, the ‘Workplace Employee Relations Survey’4 found that ‘Overall, 54% of employees were

satisfied or very satisfied with their job’5. Jason Gardner, Engaging with Youth co-ordinator at the

London Institute for Contemporary Christianity cites that today that figure has fallen to 20%. Such

(For all references throughout this report, please refer to the attached Bibliography) 1 Interview with Claire Pedrick 2 The Path to Purpose, William Damon 3 Vocation’ comes from the Latin verb vocare (to call); originally its usage was to refer to the ‘call’ of God to his people, individual or collective. It’s most common use in the Latin Vulgate was to refer to the calling to the priesthood, a use still commonly seen in Roman Catholicism today, thus the origin of the modern religious connotations that the word still carries. Protestantism in the sixteenth century however, led by thinkers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin, opened doors to allow ‘vocation to encompass also secular occupations. 4 Department for Business Innovation and Skills 5 Office for National Statistics


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findings are hardly conducive to a healthy working culture. On the contrary, these figures allude to a

society that is growing increasingly despondent about their work-situation. Too often individuals are

finding themselves chained to jobs that they don’t want to be doing, out of necessity or need: worry

about pension schemes and financial security, along with an increasing lack of hope for the future.

They suggest that people in the UK are working to live, and not the other way around. Such an

atmosphere is not healthy. It has been shown to cause in some cases, severe ‘emotional distress’6.

As young people leave schools and universities, they are finding themselves thrown unexpectedly

into the aforementioned climate. The current state of affairs is cultivating a generation who will

never be satisfied with their jobs – they are driven by money, success and fame7. The novel ‘Up in

the air’8 by Walter Kirn that has recently been made into an Oscar-nominated film, depicts the story

of Ryan Bingham who epitomises the modern culture of the individual; his life is spent flying across

America, firing employees whose employers have no desire to do so themselves. In his life, Ryan

neglects any relationships with people, or places; he is driven entirely by his own success. The fact

that such a novel could have the success that it has perhaps suggests a growing desire in our

communities to redefine the way we see our lives; to re-acknowledge our identity as human beings,

and to reassess our life choices. This is why the issue of young people and meaningful careers

urgently needs to be considered, if not answered. What are their needs? What influences their lives

and choices? What drives them? And most importantly, where do we go from here?

Needs In 1990, a young highly talented young man named Chris McCandless

gave all of his money charity, left his family, and began to backpack

his way across America. He left his family and promise of a Harvard

education in search of truth. Since then, Chris’ story has been turned

into a bestselling novel and a major film9. Like so many young people,

Chris felt the pressures and expectations of society keenly. He craved

the isolation and freedom of nature, and set about discovering it for

himself. What it is important to recognise, is that though Chris’

choices are not recommendable (he died, alone in a bus in Alaska, having eaten a poisonous plant);

he has many lessons to teach young people of today. He had a goal, a direction in which he was

travelling – he would go to Alaska. He was uncomfortable with the ever-present social obsession

with money, success and fame. In his journals, Chris highlighted the Henry David Thoreau quote;

"Rather than love, than money, than fame... give me truth"10. For many of today’s young people,

such a plea holds real truth. While society calls them to love and relationships, to money and

6 Affluenza, Oliver James 7 The Path to Purpose, William Damon 8 Up in the air, Walter Kirn 9 Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer. The book quotes directly from Journals kept by Chris on his travels. One such example reads: ‘So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.’ 10 Ibid.


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success, to fame; many young people today know that these things will never truly satisfy them, as

long as they lack knowledge of who they really are.

William Damon11 draws upon the work of renowned developmental

psychologist Jean Piaget (left), when discussing the needs of young people

today. Before his death in 1980, Piaget had been working on what he termed

‘equilibration’, or achieving balance. After meeting him shortly before his

death, Damon slowly began to understand what Piaget had meant. In his

own book The Path to Purpose, he defines it as ‘equilibration in development

is moving forward, steadily, never trying to stay in one place’. Many of the

Greek philosophers would have felt that such forward movement was fitting,

and in line with the way of nature; Heraclitus famously suggested that

‘everything is in a state of flux’ or as Aristotle termed it, ‘motus’12. In his own book, Damon suggests

that two conditions are fundamental for equilibration; (1) ‘forward movement towards a fulfilling

purpose’ and (2) ‘a structure of social support consistent with that effort’.

Perhaps the most implicative of discoveries that Damon has made in his

studies, is that purpose does not need to be achievable to have radical

effects on people’s lives. For example, some people’s purpose may be to

abolish poverty, achieve world peace (or some such purpose that for many

outsiders seems unachievable). Damon suggests that ‘an extremely ambitious

goal is not necessarily naive; for many it is a practical source of intense

motivation’. This motivation serves to drive the individual forward,

sometimes with incredible speed and passion, thus a source of equilibration.

Moreover, where a long-term goal such as purpose exists to motivate

individuals, ‘short term goals and motives usually lead nowhere and soon, extinguish themselves in

directionless activity’. All of these findings point to one conclusion; young people need to find a

sense of long-term direction in their lives. Where am I ultimately heading? What is my first step to

getting there? With short-term goals that are leading to a long-term destination, they suddenly have

meaning – a reason for which they are being done. Without this rational reason for completing one

piece of homework, for doing community service in our spare time; it is sometimes very difficult to

see through the fog to where we are going. If we know where it is that we are trying to get to,

regardless of whether or not we get there, the steps along the way make much more sense.

11 The Path to Purpose, William Damon 12

Aristotle was an empiricist, concerned with the nature of being. In his work Metaphysics, Aristotle discusses the notion of cause and motus. A The Children’s Society

‘In comparison with 25 European states, using more than 50 different indicators, the UK ranked in 21st

place. Although high in the league for educational attainment and housing quality, the UK scores poorly

for the quality of children’s relationships with their parents and peers, for child health, relative poverty and

deprivation, for risky behaviour (cigarette smoking, drunkenness, the use of cannabis and inhalants,

teenage pregnancy, underage and unsafe sexual intercourse) and for subjective well-being (children’s own

evaluation of how happy and healthy they are). Amongst the rich, western member states the UK ranked

lowest.’A


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Young people are floating adrift. Damon’s research has shown that the

issues affecting young people and their sense of purpose cross all

boundaries; social class, ethnicity and academic ability have no influence

whatsoever on people’s sense of purpose – a fact which serves to

challenge the old-fashioned assumptions that those of greater academic

ability are more successful in their choice of career than those who

aren’t, or that crossing social classes in career choice prohibits some

individuals from success. Damon talks of a disengaged youth who ‘report an inner life of anxiety and

a sense of feeling trapped in a life that is not under their control.’ He cites the case of Jessica, an

incredibly bright young woman, who when taking numerous different courses ‘none of them sparked

her interest to the extent that she did more than cursory reading about the subject matter in her

spare time’. He says ‘these brilliant students would not be losing their motivation if they brought with

them a better sense of what they wanted to accomplish and why... the core problem is the lack of a

source of motivation, the lack of a sense of purpose’.

Jason Gardner13 talks of the success model that exists in society; a model of fame and fortune thrust

upon young people by the media. Many of the problems faced by modern young people relate to

society’s expectations of them. Whether it be media, internet marketing, or conversations in the

playground, that are causing these pressures, research shows that many young people today

associate happiness with wealth, fame, and their own appearance. In his book Affluenza, Oliver

James writes ‘An epidemic of ‘affluenza’ is sweeping through the English-speaking world, an

obsessive, envious, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses, that makes us twice as prone to depression, anxiety

and addictions than people in other developed nations.’ Anthony Seldon14 in his article ‘It Is

Worthwhile Teaching Children Wellbeing’ writes ‘Depression and hyper-anxiety among young people

at school and university... have reached epidemic proportions’. Research carried out in 2009 by The

Children’s Society15 in collaboration with Professors at the University of York, and published in The

Good Childhood Inquiry found that ‘the well-being of children in the UK is rated among the worst in

Europe.’ They support James’ claims, suggesting that as a result of increasing parental affluence

‘Depression and anxiety have increased for both boys and girls aged 15-16 since the mid-1980s, as

have what are called ‘non-aggressive conduct problems’ such as lying, stealing and disobedience.’

Further to this, the report adds, ‘Around 5% of young people in the

survey self-defined as having a problem with drugs and 8% as having a

problem with alcohol’, figures that are frighteningly high. While many of

the issues raised in the report can (and were) attributed to home life,

the media and society should also be held accountable. A culture of

celebrity constantly updated on the internet with modern social

networking facilities like Facebook and Twitter means that more than

ever young people are replicating the life-choices of celebrities themselves. The toxic combination of

all these factors calls those who work with young people to do something about it; to effect change.

Young people need to find a sense of direction in their lives. A sense of direction that relies not on

fitting in best with society, but on meeting our own potential; on being truly individual. And without

13

Interview with Jason Gardner 14 The Financial Times, June 25 2007 15 The Children’s Society


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that keen sense of where young people are going, there is little chance of finding a truly meaningful

career now or in the future.

Personal Influences Malcolm Gladwell (left), author of The Tipping Point, recently became

fascinated with ‘Outliers’16 in society – that is, ‘people who are outliers—

men and women who, for one reason or another, are so accomplished and

so extraordinary and so outside of ordinary experience that they are as

puzzling to the rest of us as a cold day in August.’ In his book of the same

title, Gladwell attempts to cast light over the factors that influence the

individual’s propensity to success. Factors which, in many cases, are the same as those found to

influence an individual’s sense of purpose. Of the search to identify these variables, Gladwell writes;

‘we've been far too focused on the individual—on describing the characteristics and habits and

personality traits of those who get furthest ahead in the world. And that's the problem, because in

order to understand the outlier I think you have to look around them—at their culture and

community and family and generation. We've been looking at tall trees, and I think we should have

been looking at the forest.’

The key influences on young people and their ability to find purpose

and meaningful careers stem from themselves, their friends and

family. When William Damon17 and Jennifer Menon Mariano carried

out extensive nationwide research among young people in the US,

they asked candidates to rank a number of factors in terms of how

heavily they are motivated by them. The factors used were:

academic achievement; arts; career; community service; family;

political/societal issues; religious faith and spirituality and sports. Overwhelmingly the results show

that the highest motivators for young people are family (either existing, or potential), career and

academic achievement. In my own survey of 200 British young people aged 14-2518, I asked the

same question (1 for motivates me a lot, 8 doesn’t motivate me at all) and found that the highest

scoring motivator was indeed family (an average score of 2.47), followed closely by academic

achievement (2.83) and career (3.25). These are the factors that drive young people. It is

encouraging to see that young people are motivated beyond themselves. However, when comparing

the results of these surveys to the definition of meaningful that we laid out to begin with; a

combination of strength, passion and altruism - it is clear that young people’s world views are

currently quite localised; me and my friends and family.

Further, a major factor in young people’s achievement of meaning in their

lives comes from their engagement in extra-curricular activities. For those

whose only outlet beyond socialising is school-work, it can be very difficult to

find motivation. When Damon and Mariano carried out their research, they

16

Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell 17 The Path to Purpose, William Damon 18 Own survey of 200 14-25 year olds – See Appendix A for full graphological presentation of results.


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were aware of young people’s involvement in sports and the arts. These outside interests allow

young people the opportunity to develop passions, interests and skills beyond the norm. Such

passions often develop and flourish under careful attention, and can bloom into meaningful lives in

the future. Damon19, Rick Warren20, Jason Gardner21 and Clare Townsend22 all agree that where

young people engage regularly in extra-curricular activities, purpose and meaning are far more likely

to prosper. Damon says that ‘what is often missing is the kind of wholehearted dedication to an

activity or interest that stems from a serious purpose’. The Connexions23 service in schools also say

that when a young person has no idea of what they want to do when they go for a Connexions

meeting, if they have extra-curricular activities that they enjoy doing, it can help hone down the

options. In my survey24 I found that 65.6% of those surveyed chose their school subjects options

because they enjoyed them, (other options included needing them for future ambition; being good

at them; parental influence and random choice). These results suggest that when young people have

experience of something, they are better equipped to deciding what they

want to do. The same is true in many other areas of school life. Work

experience, for example, offers students the chance to sample different

types of work – where students dislike the style of work (an office job, for

instance), it is perhaps more helpful in that it allows them to focus their

thoughts about careers away from the office. Young people need more

opportunities to experience different kinds of activities, whether it be in

or outside of school, in order to equip them to make effective and

worthwhile choices.

This is not true however, for all young people. For many years

purpose and vocation have been seen as religious terms. Though

this should not be the case, it has been in the past for very good

reasons. Traditionally those of faith have a world view that is far

broader than those of non-faith backgrounds. The Chartered

Management Institute25 hosted a debate on managing faith in the

workplace, with speakers from Christian, Jewish and Muslim

backgrounds. They agreed that in the workplace, those of faith

looked more to the world – outside of the office building, than those

without. Such ability to look beyond the here and now can be vital

for a healthy, glowing workplace. Young people of faith are often the same – they can look beyond

the here and now to be pragmatic and compassionate in their choices; choosing to live for the

community, not the self. When it comes to finding careers therefore, young people of faith are far

more likely to look to do something giving and altruistic than those going for careers from no faith.

Rick Warren in his world-renowned book The Purpose Driven Life26 considers the faith-question of

19 The Path to Purpose, William Damon 20 The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren 21 Interview with Jason Gardner 22 Interview with Clare Townsend 23 Interview with Rachel Berry 24 Own survey of 200 14-25 year olds 25 Chartered Management Institute 26 The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren


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‘What on earth am I here for?’ Faith forces individuals to see their lives as a part of the bigger

picture, a part of the giant jigsaw of human life. Such open-mindedness, and yearning to do

something amazing for God, only serves positively for young (and old) people of faith. Gerard Kelly, a

Christian poet wrote the lines ‘Fit me in somewhere, in this giant jigsaw, God, somewhere in this

work of art you’re working, select a space my shape can fill. And with a puzzle maker’s skill, let my

contours find their fit without contortion.’27 For people of all faiths, finding fit in God’s plans is

crucial. It is for these reasons that young people from faith backgrounds are more likely to find

meaningful careers – their faith directs them to a lifestyle that combines strength (given by God),

with passion (also given by God) and meeting the needs of the world (through compassion, and love

for all people).

On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that faith is not the

only factor that drives individuals to higher chances of finding

meaning in their lives. Family has a huge influence on young people’s

aspirations and choices. In my survey of 200 young people, only

68.8% said that their parents talk to them about careers. While this

figure may seem quite high, the majority of students in my survey

were from relatively prosperous households. Connexions28

acknowledge that there are three kinds of parents among young

people: parents who take a keen interest in their children’s choices,

but do not make them for them; parents who make all decisions for their children; and those who

are almost apathetic to the choices of their young people. Clare Townsend29 points out that today

we have one of the highest rates of third-generation unemployment that this country has ever seen.

For young people growing up in these families, there is no-one to serve as a role-model for what a

meaningful life can be, and as such they are far more likely than anyone else to end up unemployed

(or unsatisfied with their employment) than any other young people. Family is the place where our

understanding of the world is built. If there are no positive role-models in our homes to show young

people what a meaningful career looks like, then society needs to find a way to give them that

opportunity.

Extrinsic Influences The UK government was the first worldwide to recognise NEETs, in 2007.

NEETs are young adults (aged 16-18) who are Not in Education,

Employment or Training. When the British government identified NEETs,

they pledged to reduce the percentage of NEETs to 7.6% by 201030.

Currently, almost one in ten young people is classified as NEET. In order

to reduce this figure, the government have brought in measures in

27 Spoken Worship, Gerard Kelly 28 Interview with Rachel Berry 29 Interview with Clare Townsend 30 BBC


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schools. For example, more young people are encouraged to enter colleges, apprenticeships or other

training programmes. The Connexions service31 within schools also aims to get as many young

people as possible off the unemployment registers, and into education, employment or training. In a

climate where the availability of jobs on the market has dipped considerably – due to the recent

recession – Rachel Berry says things have become even more strained than they were three or four

years ago, and training has become a far more valuable tool. The main problems faced by the

careers services now are finding employers who are willing to take on trainees – a risky strategy in

any economic climate. With fewer and fewer jobs available, Berry suggests that more young people

are ending up in jobs they don’t want to do ‘they end up somewhere to survive’. Within schools, the

Connexions service works with young people to try to prevent them from becoming NEET, looking at

options for training and employment directly available after school. The service also works with the

unemployed in communities, working to get them back into employment. Berry says that one of the

biggest problems is with training provision – ‘not all young people find training an attractive option’

– because young people are not motivated by training, as to them it has no immediate benefits.

Clare Townsend32 says that one of the problems with the Connexions service is that their remit is to

work with young people who are disadvantaged. While this seems fitting given the problems faced in

this country with NEETs, it does mean that other young people are being lost in the system, unsure

of what their options are. Further, she points out that Connexions don’t offer skills based work.

While it would be impractical to expect them to do so, it means that the support available for young

people is limited. In my own survey33, 57.8% of young people did not think that the careers system in

schools was good, most commenting ‘what careers system?’ Those who did think that it was good

usually said that they knew what they wanted to do, and Connexions were able to offer them

support in that direction. At a time when young people are struggling most to decide what to do

with their lives, the services that have been put in place by the government in order to support

young people, while doing everything in their remit, are unable to offer the help that many young

people really need.

Government targets have affected young people in further ways too. The Children’s Act of 2004 led

to the establishment of Every Child Matters34, a nationwide campaign to help improve the lives of all

children and young people. The government have made it clear that every single young person is

valued in this country, but many still struggle to find the support to help strategise and plan towards

a meaningful future. It has been established that for many young people it is the lack of appropriate

31 Interview with Rachel Berry 32 Interview with Clare Townsend 33 Own survey of 200 14-25 year olds 34 Every Child Matters: The pledged aims of the campaign are:

Increasing the focus on supporting families and carers – the most critical influence on children's lives.

Ensuring necessary intervention takes place before children reach crisis point and protecting children from falling through the net.

Addressing the underlying problems identified in the report into the death of Victoria Climbié – weak accountability and poor integration.

Ensuring that the people working with children are valued, rewarded and trained.


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role model that prevents them from finding meaning in their lives, and so far the steps that the

government has put in place have not made a great deal of difference. The real young people that

they’re trying to affect are totally unaware that anyone is trying to do anything; they are unaware

that Every Child Matters.

Moving Forward We have established that in the current climate, most young people are ill-equipped to find

meaningful careers. Along the way, we’ve seen signs of what works and what doesn’t; glimmers of

hope in the darkness. Young people whose parents offer them stable support to build a meaningful

future; young people who through faith seek careers in which their strengths, passions and the

needs of the world will combine into one unified, fulfilling direction; young people whose extra-

curricular adventures guide them to see new pathways through their future, expanding the horizons

of their hopes and dreams, opening their eyes to a plethora of possibilities.

Some things though, do need to change. William

Damon says that ‘virtually all young people need

more attention and guidance from their elders

than they are currently receiving’35. It seems

more evident than ever that parents and

families provide the environment which

determines the kind of people our young people

grow up to be, and the aspirations that they will

have. If a young person is growing up in a home

in which no-one has ever enjoyed their job, they

are unlikely to consider satisfaction as a factor

when making decisions regarding careers. If a

young person has grown up with a family who measure success by salary, they may struggle if they

find that making money doesn’t make them happy. Jason Gardner36 recognises the importance of

role-models in the lives of young people. He advocates ‘celebrating other vocations within culture’ in

order to break the success model in society that currently stands – that of fame and fortune. He

recently set up a project in a church called This Time Tomorrow where young people are given the

opportunity to meet with older people from the congregation to talk about what they will be doing

this time tomorrow. The project serves to break down the barriers for young people in finding

suitable role models. Rachel Berry37 asserts that one of the main problems facing young people is

their limited understanding of the scope of jobs out there. A project such as Gardner’s allows young

people to have meaningful conversations with a wide variety of adults to broaden their

understanding of the careers landscape, while also breaking some of the prejudices that some adults

may have about young people.

35 The Path to Purpose, William Damon 36 Interview with Jason Gardner 37 Interview with Rachel Berry


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Once young people have established what their options are, they

need to become actively involved in making them happen. Damon

says ‘there is very little public leadership aspiration among today’s

younger generation... In fact, many of today’s young show little

interest in society beyond the tight circle of their family and

immediate friends... adolescence appears to have become a time of

apathy and self-indulgence, rather than altruism and social

campaigning found in previous generations.’ Young people are losing touch with the activism and

pragmatism that drove their parents’ generations. The liberation movements of the 1960s, 70s and

80s saw many people, from all manner of backgrounds, united behind the common causes of racial,

gender and sexual liberation. The work of groups such as: the Civil Rights Movement in America, led

by martin Luther King Jr.; the feminist movement in both the US and the UK, led by liberation writers

such as Germaine Greer and Kate Millet; the fight for Gay rights in America led by inspirational

activists such as Harvey Milk, all gave young people across nations a common cause to believe in, to

be consumed by. Similarly, in order to fully gain a sense of meaning in their lives and then careers,

today’s young people need to get their hands dirty in society, finding out what’s out there by tasting

it for themselves instead of relying on what they can find out from various vicarious sources such as

the media, television ands the internet. If young people start to go out into the world and make their

voices heard, they will develop passions and hopes that will give them the tools to build a strong,

motivated and meaningful future for themselves and their generation.

Further, when dealing with ways to facilitate purposeful futures for our young people, it is crucial

that we understand that the world we prepare them for today, is very different to the one many

parents and teachers were used to themselves. Over the last fifty years, the jobs market has

undergone a revolution. Gone are the days of secretaries with typewriters noting down the words of

an important letter, today programmes are able to listen to a voice and scribe automatically. Gone is

the cult of the family greengrocer’s business. More and more young people are choosing to ignore or

pay little attention to the career choices of their parents, and are instead choosing to carve a life for

themselves38. But perhaps the biggest change lies in the fact that today’s working generation can

expect to have an average of five careers in their lifetime39. This does not refer to five jobs within the

same field, but five totally separate career strands. An example career path could be teacher-doctor-

lawyer-government medical advisor-local magistrate. In preparing young people for the world of

work therefore, we are not concerned with training them to work successfully within a particular

profession, but to work successfully within the professional world. Not to work well at their

vocation, but to understand and recognise the signs of meaning and purpose in anything they do, so

that wherever they may find themselves, they will not be without meaning or purpose. This is our

challenge.

38 There are of course exceptions to this rule. Perhaps the most common exceptions are found in Medicine, Law and performing arts, where it is traditionally (and remains so) much easier for young people to gain placements or pupilages if a parent chose the same career. This is why there are often great family dynasties within the three areas, and such nepotism can anger other candidates who feel that their chances are prejudiced. It is perhaps the long-standing legacy of such careers, as opposed to the new and progressive careers that have developed in recent years, that causes such a nepotistic phenomena. 39 Interview with Claire Pedrick


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‘Virtually all theories of human development portray adolescence as a

period when young people formulate their identities’ says Damon40. If this is

the case, then it is absolutely fundamental to the sustainability of this

generation that young people are offered the opportunities to develop

those identities and flourish in them. It may be that the expectations

society has of them need to be altered; that the way we use the media

needs to be assessed; and that the way we relate to young people needs to

be evaluated. Do we want this generation of young people to be ‘apathetic

and self-indulgent41’? Do we want to bring up a generation of people whose world views are entirely

self-gratifying and narcissistic? Young people find meaningful careers by finding themselves, and

placing those discoveries into the bigger picture of the world. In order to do this they need to have

adults who they can look up to and turn to for support, whether they be at home, at school, or in the

media. This country will have to turn itself around and begin to see the world as a community of

people, not as a collection of individuals. Within that community are people with the potential to

radicalise the way we see the world, but only by recognising their place in an overall community will

they ever be able to utilise that potential effectively.

The time for spoiling and cushioning our young people has passed. It’s time to let them go out into

the world and find out what it means for them; what it can offer them. It’s time to let them be

themselves. To let them be purposeful; meaningful; bursting with integrity. If we can do that, our

streets will be fuelled by a generation equipped to effect change. A generation of conscientious

young people ready to build a better world for their children. Martin Luther King in 1963 said: ‘I have

a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the

colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.’42We can be a part of

that dream. Which direction will we choose to journey?

40 The Path to Purpose, William Damon 41 Ibid. 42 Martin Luther King, I have a dream speech

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