Youth wellbeing, learning and work

The result was eye-watering job losses amongst young people during the pandemic: 30% laid off in Greece, 12.1% in Spain, 11% in Slovenia, 9% in Poland and Croatia[3]. According to the report, many inevitably experienced housing insecurity: 43% reported difficulty in making ends meet and 39% had no savings to speak of. The number of young people now considered NEETS (not in employment, education or training) is now 13.7% within the EU, but rockets to 26.2% in North Macedonia and 32% in Turkey[4].

The crises have also exacerbated gender divides. Over the past ten years, the NEET rate for 15-29 year olds has consistently been higher for women than it is for men. Women tended to be over-represented in sectors most affected by Covid, such as tourism and hospitality, retail trade and the care sector. Young, working mothers also bore the burden of increased childcare brought about by the closure of nurseries and schools during the pandemic[5].

Online, distance learning was intended to reduce the danger of educational exclusion as schools and colleges closed, but the recurrent recourse to screen-based learning ushered in almost as many problems as it solved. In many countries, the digital divide is very wide: according to 2018 results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), in Albania 10% of students, and in Turkey over 20%, don't have access to the internet. That figure rises to 60% amongst the socio-economically disadvantaged in Turkey[6].

Digitalisation is a double-edged sword. For all its advantages, it also brings risks which are acute for already-vulnerable age groups: cyber-bullying, body-shaming, addictive social media, fake news, deep-fake videos, revenge-porn and excessive gaming are all frequently reported in surveys of young people.  Disproportionate time online can create isolation more than connection: young people who spend more than six hours online outside of school are more likely to report that they are not satisfied with their life or that they feel lonely[7]. Nearly half of young people have been subjected to intimidating, threatening, or nasty messages online leading to anxiety and depression[8].

Reduced mobility during repeated lockdowns has also hampered any hope of youthful adventure. Research collated by UNICEF and the ETF suggested that more than 107,000 participants in Erasmus+ were affected by Covid: 23,500 saw activities suspended, another 38,500 saw them cancelled. 80,000 were forced to return home[9]. When the climate emergency and economic stagflation are factored in, it’s hardly surprising that there is a mental health epidemic among European youth.

Research by University College London and the Sutton Trust has suggested that poor mental health among young people, aged 16 and 17, has increased by more than a quarter since 2017. Nearly a half (44%) of young people were found to be above the threshold for “probable mental ill health”, with high levels of psychological distress increasing steeply from 23% in 2007 to 35% in 2017. Snežana Klašnja, an advisor for youth policy at the Serbian Ministry of Sport and Tourism, says that research in 2021 revealed that 38% of young people in the country perceived themselves to be suffering from depression.

For years, the ETF has been at the centre of this debate, evaluating the ways in which wellbeing can affect education and employment and vice versa. In the joint UNICEF-ETF ground breaking report, “Preventing a ‘Lockdown Generation’ in Europe and Central Asia”, the correlation between psychological distress and lack of study motivation was very clear, with 68% of those with mental health issues struggling to study. 45% of those with poor mental health felt they had fallen behind their classmates[10].

Rather than simply diagnose the problems, however, the ETF has also sought solutions, curating the Digital Education Reform Framework and contributing to the Huawei European Leadership Academy’s programme, “Female Leadership in the Digital Age”. Manuela Prina, Head of the Skills Identification and Development Unit at the ETF, says that “introducing technology into the learning environment needs to be done with an awareness that digital work also carries mental health risks: isolation, hidden abuses, dependencies… we know that the production of dopamine is high when young people interact with digital settings and those highs are very difficult to recreate in real life, with the result that some look for extreme adventure or start using drugs or alcohol.” Prina suggests that it’s vital for a learning environment “to engage young people” and to be able to “detect unease and how to support them…”

Eurofound research suggests that the wellbeing question isn’t a zero-sum game but can actually become a win-win for both individuals and colleges, for both employees and employers. In the same way that depression, anxiety and insomnia are frequent amongst the unemployed, those who are employed are least likely to be at risk[11]. Work-related productivity, and course-completion, has been shown to rise amongst those participants who feel appreciated, valued and integrated in their settings.

“Results are simply better in those workplaces where the employers trust their employees and care about their feelings”, says Klašnja. “It’s better for the company when there is team-building, when people know each other’s personalities and gifts, when they respect each other’s feelings and mentor rather than criticise, giving each other the opportunity to develop skills.”

Wellbeing and productivity aren’t opposites, it emerges, but complementary. That might be because, unlike industrial production lines, modern workplaces rely on skills which correlate with emotional intelligence: resilience, cooperation, adaptability, creativity, listening and decision-making. That, perhaps, is why Prina talks about “the work outside us and inside us”, creating conditions externally and internally that are “conducive to learning.”

“It is important to find a job that is fulfilling,” agrees Klašnja, “but it’s not always possible, especially in these difficult times, so then the work becomes internal: how do you think about things, how do you navigate your dissatisfaction, how you manage to find something in that job that will inspire you or help you reach your professional goals?”

So despite the anguish of young people in recent years, it seems there are grounds for optimism. The stigma surrounding mental distress is slowly being eroded, and hundreds of support initiatives – like “Be Kind to Your Mind” and “You Pro Me” – have been set up. Labour shortages in various sectors are creating workplace openings for young people entering the labour market. ALMA, a new placement scheme to help counter youth unemployment across the EU, has recently been launched and the European Commission has set an ambitious target to reduce the NEET rate from 12.6% in 2019 to 9% by 2030 for those aged 15–29.

“Mental health is a very delicate topic,” says Prina, “but it’s so important for any organisation. It’s vital to create conditions where young people’s learning and personal growth is protected, promoted and curated. Because we know that when someone is confronted with profound, personal problems they simply can’t give their full attention to their learning or their employment.”