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UK: Report Claims 46% Rise in Graduates on Benefits Since Pandemic

Does the U.K.'s education system require reform, are current interventions sufficient, or is this a narrative attack on higher education itself?

Published 1 day ago

UK: Report Claims 46% Rise in Graduates on Benefits Since Pandemic

story

Above: A Job Centre in Romford, U.K., on Jul. 14, 2021. Image credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Spin

Pro-government narrative

The government is taking urgent action to address the country's youth unemployment crisis. Through multiple investments, the government is funding a variety of workplace and training schemes that will create new opportunities for young people, by providing those struggling to find work with the support and learning they need to kickstart their careers.

GOV.UK

Government-critical narrative

The education system's obsession with pushing everyone, regardless of their talents or skills, into the university pipeline has been an unmitigated disaster. In tandem with an overbloated welfare state and a consistent migration policy that has favored cheap foreign labour over backing British talent, it is unsurprising that the job market has found itself on the brink of crisis.

GB News on X

Cynical narrative

This story reveals nothing but the establishment's disdain for graduates and those with mental health conditions. The real story is that educated people recognize the hollowness of the system they are forced into, and are pained by it, with their rational mental health struggles weaponized by the system to attack higher education and critical thinking itself.

Funding the Future