Teenagers don’t have too much fun these days do they? There’s a cloud of collective gloom hanging over a generation who are cut off from social media for their own good, told they’re too risky and too expensive to employ, have higher rates of mental ill-health than at any time in the past and risk the indignity of ending up NEET. They haven’t even got the benefit of the great music we had back in the day.

While the grown ups worry about all of this, there’s an easy and direct answer, which involves starting with the kids themselves. SH proposes: National Hospitality Service for all 16 year olds. For didn’t most of us have our first job in some form of service? Whether babysitting, working in a cafe, on the shop floor, cleaning or collecting glasses. These options just aren’t generally available to young people these days. 

Our form of NHS would necessitate a compulsory element - because choice will always be self-selecting and the point of this plan is to provide a universal experience. 6 months after GCSEs is all it would take, we say, to turn young people onto the jobs market, instil self-worth, broaden horizons and get addicted to the way an active and healthy body feels and works under pressure.

Let’s talk self-worth first of all. SH is not proposing our NHS is free labour: this will be a paid job. The young person will be interviewed, expectations discussed, choices made, contracts issued and uniform (if there is one) worn and kept clean. The feeling of getting your first pay check is hard to beat - matching earning to doing is a powerful turn on. Whatever the cost of government subsidy needed to persuade employers to take a risk and opt in - it’s going to be an investment as against the deep, dark hole of social welfare. At the end of the day, the employer might have a long term staff member, or ambassador for the business out there; it’s always better to grow your talent from scratch. 

There’s the physical side, too. Entry-level hospitality is very much a physical job. Simply having to move more, and the need to interact with real people will go a long way towards step goals, confidence, the need to get into regular sleep patterns. Not bad habits to adopt as early as possible. This is a time when we’re told approx 1 in 5 older teens are obese.

Self-worth through doing and earning goes a long way to addressing the mental health crisis. But there’s a particular way that the ‘soft skills’ of hospitality specifically help: real-time, real-life human contact is not just for customers, it’s also for colleagues. When you’re working with such a variety of people, with diverse backgrounds and different skills, every day, when you get support from your team and the chance to delight strangers - that’s going to wire young brains into happiness. It might also spread the love; if your child is “having” to work 6 months in the local restaurant, cafe, care home or hotel then you’re going to “have to” see hospitality workers in a new light: respect. 

And as if these weren't goals worth aiming for in themselves - still worried about AI, much?