You can’t be what you can’t see.
As a charity working to provide young people with relatable role models, this is a phrase we use often. And in light of various recent reports and online conversations, it has sat firmly at the front of our mind.
Almost our entire team has been watching the TV show Adolescence and we have had a fair few discussions about it. Whatever your take is on the show, whether you liked it or not, it highlighted a very real and very acute issue affecting our young people, particularly young boys.
Earlier this month, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) published their Lost Boys report. It highlights that young boys, especially working class boys, are struggling and are increasingly left behind in all areas of life. The report states that “Boys are crying out for meaning, direction and role models but the first positive role model in a child’s life is increasingly absent.”
Sir Gareth Southgate referred to this report in his Dimbleby lecture last week. He stated: “Young men are suffering. They are feeling isolated. They’re grappling with their masculinity and with their broader place in society.
As real-world communities and mentorship declines, young men end up withdrawing, reluctant to talk or express their emotions. (…)
And this void is filled by a new kind of role model who does not have their best interest at heart.”
We regularly deliver workshops in schools so we are all too aware that this is far from a novel issue. The fact that boys seem to underachieve compared to girls has been an ongoing discussion for years. But what we have taken from the Lost Boys report, Southgate’s lecture and the online conversations around Adolescence is that there has never been a greater need for relatable role models.
And who is more relatable than a person who has sat on the same school benches you are sitting on or lives in your community? Alumni (former students of a school) and employee volunteers can show young people just what “someone like me” can achieve and how to get there.
The CSJ report states that “men have unequivocally borne the brunt of industrial decline”. Jobs that were traditionally male are vanishing rapidly and young people who have grown up in communities where those were the norm are lost. They can’t see the range of careers and sectors that might be available to them outside of what they have always known. The latest BBC Bitesize Careers Survey is a perfect illustration of how little awareness young people have of the variety of jobs on offer out there.
This highlights the importance of embedding a good diversity of role models in careers education so young people can find their own path to success.
As Southgate says: “There’s a point at which boys look naturally for mentors outside their immediate family, and it is often where they find the role models who inspire them the most.”
You can’t be what you can’t see. We need to show young people what they can be. Being a role model and supporting your old or local school by sharing your career journey and experience is a simple way to contribute to positive societal change. We all have a role to play.
If you’d like to show young people what “someone like me” can achieve, please consider joining our National Alumni Network. It will give you access to online and in person volunteering opportunities.
If you are an employer and you offer volunteering days to your workforce, please consider becoming an employer partner and supporting a school in your community.
