Generation games

The first and most obvious reaction to this bald statement is that it is clearly an absurd generalisation. One can no more validly say that young people don't have the work ethic to succeed than one can say the same about any other social, demographic, ethnic or gender group. Indeed, were one to replace the phrase 'young people' with one of these other categories one would rightly be accused of discrimination and in some instances lay oneself open to prosecution! Maybe this reaction is extreme, though? Perhaps it is more sensible to see these comments as the reactionary dismissal by an older generation of a younger one they don't understand and whose attitudes or priorities they don't particularly care for? After all, isn't it entirely possible that the generation that preceded those who have given this answer felt much the same about them? Another aspect of this opinion that grates, though, is the implication on the part of these respondents that this situation (as they perceive it, at least) is no fault of theirs. Implicit within this suggestion, of course, is the notion that education is a process designed simply to mould individuals into the perfect shape required by their eventual employers. The problem with this idea is that it casts the employers as mere consumers of an end product; absolved from responsibility for the development of their prospective employees If manufacturers are not getting what they need from education, might it be useful to ask just how much the respondents to this survey have done over the past decade or so to remedy that situation? Have they been engaged with their local schools and colleges? Have they invested significant time and money in ensuring that there are young people being given the equipment, training and education they need to succeed? And, if those individuals do lack a work ethic, have those employers done anything to inculcate them with the required attitudes? In many laudable instances, of course, the answers to these questions will be 'yes'. But in many more, one fears, the answers will range from 'not much' to 'no'. In this latter case, it seems a bit rich to bemoan the lack of something you have done little or nothing to provide for yourself.