Act now for our young people, urges Hague

We need a national mission of help and mentoring if ‘Generation C’ is not to suffer their whole lives

The Government must put in place a scheme of mentoring to ensure that a generation of young people are not denied opportunities to progress, warns former Tory leader Lord Hague. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, he warns that for many in school or college, the months of education that have been lost due to the pandemic will never be replaced, with those from disadvantaged backgrounds hurt most, as they may lack the facilities to learn away from their class.

You have heard of the Millennials and Generation Z, and people of my age belong to the Boomers. Now get ready for Generation C, young people who were in education or newly employed when Covid struck. While the most tragic casualties of the pandemic are the older people who have lost their lives, and the families who mourn them, the generation bearing the greatest burden of its side-effects will be the youngest.

For many currently in school or college, the months of education that have been lost will never be replaced. This is particularly true of those from disadvantaged backgrounds, lacking the facilities and home environment to learn away from their class. Some have been at higher risk of abuse and neglect. Others have lost crucial time at university without even the certainty of returning there any time soon. And for all the great efforts made to expand online learning, the motivation that comes from spending time with an inspiring teacher or outstanding classmates is very limited in digital form. The effects will ripple through the years – 28 per cent of potential students say they will delay their university courses if social distancing and online learning is required.

Much worse is still to come. For the next great shock to hit most people is the awful truth that if you stop using a vast range of businesses and services, quite a lot of them will disappear. That is why it is right to lift lockdowns at the fastest pace consistent with infections continuing to fall, as is already in progress across much of Europe. But even in the best-case scenario, countries like Britain now face the likelihood of unemployment in the millions. The Resolution Foundation has found that 18-24-yearold employees are twice as likely to have been furloughed or lost their jobs as older workers.

Young people will be the prime victims of a looming catastrophe, their lives littered with abandoned careers, opportunities that evaporated and dreams that suddenly died.

A great deal of the damage is economic, reducing earning power over a lifetime, but it is also social. Many students meet their partners at college, and for most people each term at school or university is a vital part of their formative years. For those of us in our 50s, losing a year from our plans is not so bad. If you are 17 it is devastating. If you are 10 you might never catch up. Ministers are totally correct to try to get pupils back to school, in contrast to the short-term, public-sector mind set of some local authorities, devolved administrations and teaching unions.

So Generation C is in for a very hard time, and they need rescuing quickly. In parallel with the tracing, testing and distancing that will characterise the coming months, we should define a national mission to give this generation a better start. Many of the policies already in train to boost house building and improve infrastructure will help, but a new driving purpose with some innovative ideas will be needed. Thoughtful commentators are already producing some. Tory MP Neil O’brien has argued for radical change to cut back on poor-value degree courses and an accelerated expansion of further and technical education. The writer David Goodhart is advocating an “opportunity grant” of at least £3,000 to spend on education and training, a much simplified apprenticeship scheme and a move to new “applied universities” to rectify the error of abolishing polytechnics.

A good case can be made for going further, and giving all young people a cash grant to spend on any recognised purpose, from education to starting a business. And far beyond what governments and taxpayers can do, the whole of society should be invited to join in a new and common civic duty to bring their skills and experience to bear on this problem. Major businesses could be expected to open special schools, under licence, to run courses on understanding their industry and preparing for work. Millions of older people should be asked to volunteer for mentoring programmes. The National Citizens Service set up by David Cameron could be expanded.

There will be many other ideas that might be better than mine. The point is that the Covid crisis requires an exceptional effort to protect and develop those who will feel the greatest effects throughout their lives. It makes it vital to do what was, in any case, desirable – to harness the work of the whole country to address intergenerational inequality and the challenges faced by young people in a world where assets are expensive and skills are globally competitive.

Any drive to enhance skills and training needs to be focused on meeting national and international challenges. We need far more people to acquire knowledge in construction if the Government is to have any hope of boosting housing and infrastructure without breaching all its new immigration restrictions. The country needs vastly more people who can design, build and install low-carbon heating, and far more who understand water efficiency, ventilation, flood resilience and the huge swathe of industries that will come into being as a response to climate change. Above all we will need thousands more skilled workers to help build and maintain the digital networks that we can now see even more clearly we are going to require.

The urgent need to adapt to climate change brings us to the final and crucial ingredient of a policy to rescue the future of Generation C. That is to heed clear and justified warnings of major long-term crises to come. My own generation was fortunate, and admired the decisive action taken in the 1980s to save the ozone layer. Leaders and scientists worked together to find solutions to an obvious and pressing global need. Yet the ability to act together shown then is in serious doubt today.

We have been warned about the utter disaster threatened by rising resistance to antibiotics, yet some countries continue to shovel them into the mouths of farm animals. And we have been warned very clearly that we have only 10 years left to arrest the changes to the climate that threaten life as we know it. If Covid-19 brings any benefit it will be to shake the world from its complacency. And we can begin by devoting our ideas and efforts to the future of Generation C.