THE BEST way to preserve young people’s health during a time of mass unemployment is for them to go to college, a report published this morning suggests.
Danny Dorling, professor of human geography at the University of Sheffield, said youth opportunity-type schemes are almost as detrimental to psychological good health as unemployment.
In an editorial published online by the British Medical Journal, he said: “For young people these are a continuum of health-damaging states from being unemployed at one extreme to being placed on what were called youth opportunity programmes in the 1980s, to having a paid apprenticeship, to having a secure job, to being in college.”
Based on research into unemployment and health carried out in the 1980s and 1990s, the best option for men and women aged 16-24 was going to college, primarily because entering further education was associated with a lower risk of suicide.
“The direct effect of reducing unemployment has been estimated to prevent up to 2,500 premature deaths a year (in the UK), but the indirect effects of being employed are thought to be far greater,” Prof Dorling said.
Because of the system’s ability to cope with a sudden increase in numbers attending British universities in 1997, university intakes could rise again by 8 per cent in a single year “if they had to”. Such a move would have an immediate effect in helping those going to university to deal with the effects of the ongoing recession, shielding them from it.
There is also an impact on the dole queues. “If three extra young people per 100 this summer go to university and are out of the job market, another three people could fill those jobs that the first three might have taken, another three percentage points come off the dole queue, and fewer youngsters compete with older workers who have recently been made redundant,” Prof Dorling wrote.