College Group Chief: UK Youngsters Snub Jobs For Life

A college group chief has claimed many young people "would not take a job for life" and social mobility is declining in the UK.

Fintan Donohue, executive chair of entrepreneurial college group Gazelle, told IBTimes UK there is more demand for young people to create their own jobs in the current labour market.

"There's less opportunity for young people to move through the career structure in a way that might have happened 20 years ago," Donohue argued.

"But the really good news is that many young people we work with haven't got an expectation about a predictable outcome. They're not looking for someone to give them a job for life - actually, many of them wouldn't take a job for life."

Donohue said the old form of social mobility - of moving up through the UK's class structure - is declining.

But he explained a new form has established itself, where students have to cope with uncertainty and deal with periods of work instability, which will create mobility.

Prime Minister David Cameron argued last week that Britain needs to be more socially diverse.

He said: "You only have to look at the make-up of the high levels of parliament, the judiciary, the army, the media. It's not as diverse, there's not as much social mobility as there needs to be.

"I agree that we need a far more socially mobile country. That is something we need to do far more about."

The comments come as Gazelle announced a partnership with education group Pearson, to extend its entrepreneurial teaching and learning across the UK.

The collaboration will see the pair work on programmes targeted at college principals, teachers and students, and a set of qualifications that will focus on entrepreneurship.

"We have been working with Gazelle at various levels since its formation, and are pleased to be formalising our relationship with this partnership, progressing our shared ambition to create new learning models and products that are of genuine significance to the entire further education sector," said Rod Smith, managing director of vocational and applied learning at Pearson.

The companies said the partnership reflects their shared belief that colleges can support economic growth, and that of UK small businesses, by embracing an entrepreneurial ethos.