Generation Z lost to NEET: calling time on a school system that fails too many young people
FORUM - Print ISSN 1474-7685 - Online ISSN 2047-7171
Volume 68 Number 3 (2026)
Generation Z lost to NEET: calling time on a school system that fails too many young people
Doug Martin pages 101‑111
DOI: 10.3898/forum.2026.68.3.09
Abstract
One in eight young people aged 16 to 24 in the UK are not in education, employment and training (NEET). This represents over one million young people whom society appears to consider disposable. The recent government-commissioned Milburn review is investigating the many factors that contribute to this crisis.
I examine NEET from the perspective of England’s state-funded school system via research conducted over the last decade with school staff, practitioners at work in communities with young people and families, and NEET young people and their parents and carers. Through these varied voices I examine how the present approach to English schooling has contributed to the NEET phenomenon.
Comprehensive schooling introduced 50 years ago took a radical stance to tackle the deep inequality inherent within the postwar, two-tier system of secondary education. It has been hijacked by the introduction of policies such as school league tables and academisation, which fuel interschool rivalry based upon academic results. To reduce the risk of further generations becoming NEET, government should engage in radical educational change that reflects the original aims of comprehensive schooling.
To cite this article
Doug Martin (2026) Generation Z lost to NEET: calling time on a school system that fails too many young people, FORUM, 68(3), 101-111 . https://doi.org/10.3898/forum.2026.68.3.09