Jul 15, 2013
LIVE AND LEARN
You may remember we invited people to share their stories on how they cope with making a living. This is the first post starting to analyse the findings from this research, starting with how important young people value finding a place they can call their own, learning, making and earning a living. But first, here’s our infographic you can print out! It’s best viewed by clicking on this link.
Living
Just under one in five value living somewhere as something to strive for. For three quarters of these, that means having a place they can call their own – to provide them with stability, particularly with people who are tired of moving from town to town and even from country to country – and in some cases, to help their parents settle too.
It’s split down the middle in terms of proportions of people wanting their own house versus those who want their own flat. For about a sixth of people, living in a good neighbourhood is very important, particularly one that is clean and safe. A couple of people preferred to live in a place with others – such as through a commune – or prioritise living abroad, such as in South America and Asia.
Click on the visualisation to activate it
Learning
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Making
Just under a fifth of participants felt making was an important ambition. Almost a third of these want to do work that they enjoy and that they are good at. This was defined as meaningful work that fulfils young people professionally. For some that was about working in a cooperative environment or producing their own food. For others it was about being the best specialist in their field – such as becoming a teacher working with children.
Building on this, around one in ten respondents wanted to aspire to get as many people as possible to see what they had made – whether that was getting their films or books distributed widely, performing in important films or being a famous artist in their genre.
Another third of people want to start their own business, in particularly being able to earn a living from it to make it sustainable While only five percent want to do work which challenged them, around 15 percent strive to have a stable job, particularly those currently working in precarious situations, such as at night.
Stability is therefore very important, but that doesn’t mean to say they don’t want to see change – the same percentage want to achieve progress in their career – whether through being better paid or promoted whether in their current field – such as becoming a professor or a manager – or finally being able to use their qualifications to move into the sector they wanted to work in – such as European politics.
Earning
Only 8% of people value earning money as an important principle to strive for. Almost a third want to become financially independent, in particular from their family or to be able to turn their hobby into a job, or to sustain their creative ventures, such as filmmaking or jewellery.
Almost a third prioritise getting paid fairly as an important expectation, to stop doing slave work for companies and actually become rewarded for their efforts at work – such as getting paid for having their books published. Is financial independence becoming more important than financial stability?
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Our next post in this series will explore the other expectations young people have. Watch this space!
