No Jobs, No Experience, Now What? Preparing Teens for 2026 and Beyond
Perhaps it is my age - or a quiet nostalgia for the 1990s - but, in reflecting on the employment market for young people, one reality stands out clearly.
The Saturday job is quickly becoming a thing of the past. In the last year alone, retail and hospitality vacancies have fallen by nearly 20% year-on-year. This entry-level point in the market is being squeezed at both ends by rising employer costs and a relentless shift towards automation.
As recently as 2021, the national minimum wage for under-18s was £4.62 per hour. As of tomorrow, 1 April 2026, that figure rises to £8.00 per hour. This represents a 73% increase in just five years, creating massive upward pressure on every other employment band above it. These cost pressures are forcing companies to choose between increasingly expensive human labour and increasingly affordable automation at a time when AI is sweeping all before it.
Equally, we have all read headlines about Gen Z looking for lifestyle jobs that perfectly match their ideals of purpose and motivation. While that might sound like a sensible strategy it could be damaging their employability. You don’t find the ‘laptop on a beach’ life, by skipping the ‘sweeping the sheds’ stage. As parents, our role is to ensure our children’s ambitions are aligned with both the market’s reality and their own competence.
How do we develop employable young people?
If the paper round has disappeared, we shouldn’t dwell on it - instead, we should focus on finding new ways for young people to build employability and all-round competence alongside strong GCSE and A Level results.
Here are four strategies for parents who want their teens to win in 2026 and beyond:
Exploit the 'Foundation' Loophole – From April 2026, the government has extended Foundation Apprenticeships specifically for young people. These are not just jobs, they are government-backed entry points where small and medium sized companies (SMEs) receive a £2,000 incentive to employ a young person. Rather than sending young people towards ‘Indeed’, instead direct them to a Foundation Apprenticeships and bypass the standard corporate filters.
Trade 'Screen Time' for 'Skill Time' – The 2026 market is focussed on micro-credentials. If young people cannot find a physical job, they could be building a digital one. For every hour spent on social media, they should aim to spend thirty minutes on a certified short course in something like ‘AI Prompting’ or ‘Digital Marketing’. By 18, they could possess a portfolio of digital badges that act as genuine currency in the employment market.
Gamify the 'Cold Call' – Online portals can feel impersonal and difficult to navigate which makes genuine human connection even more important. Recently a Radnor parent suggested a creative challenge – why not encourage your teenager to visit five local businesses and ask the owners, ‘What is one thing you wish your younger staff were better at?’ Not only does this serve as valuable market research, but it often leads to opportunities for unadvertised trial shifts.
Think Beyond our Borders – I have written in the past about opportunities abroad and it is encouraging to see that the UK-EU youth mobility deal has shown signs of life this week. However, beyond the EU, Youth Mobility Scheme places are available for countries like Australia, Canada and South Korea and are more accessible than you might think. Indeed, one of our Sixth Form students this year has accessed this scheme for Canada and is looking forward to a ski season on the slopes before university. Working in a different culture for six months helps build resilience quickly and can significantly boost a young person’s employability.
As parents, we often spend time smoothing the path for our children forgetting it’s the friction and the bumps in the road, that creates the traction. Things are tough now, but they have been tough before. We should reframe the difficulty as a challenge to be overcome, and our teenagers who learn to embrace that will be far better prepared than those who’ve had things more easily. Our job is not to protect them from the market, it is to enable them to thrive within it.
