Today’s Generation

We have heard a lot about the “generation of the ni-ni”. From a youth that does not study, does not work, and does not want to do it. From a generation that does not worry about the future because it benefits from a placid present that it considers eternal. Some young people who dropped out of high school because the site opposite needed staff and paid well, without thinking that this site on which they were going to work could end.

We have heard that this generation, precisely, fell face to face against the walls it was building and against the crisis of which, without knowing it, it was the workforce,  like Eve when she bit into the Apple. Thus, the open doors of the labor market suddenly closed and the young people returned to high school, almost by inertia and without thinking of a vocation.

A generation with few opportunities

This is partly how we ended up with the best prepared generation in history and, although it may seem paradoxical, with the one with the highest rate of school failure. We are also facing  a generation of young people who have accepted with astonishing strength of character the difficulties and the conditions that companies require to become part of their staff. Thus, we can often meet bakers who can speak five languages ​​and program in C ++ or cashiers who have a doctorate in quantum physics.

We also have the new / new apprentices, now called interns, who are the guarantee of survival for many companies. Qualified, motivated people who are inexpensive and who very often provide grants and prestige to the companies with which they collaborate. We are not going to say “with whom they work” because otherwise, we would have to denounce it, right? For example, we can illustrate this through the recent controversy over “the workforce” that many Michelin-starred restaurants have.

Of course, there are exceptions. Speaking while generalizing is always unfair to them. However, it would be very positive to have more exceptions in the form of companies that offer serious, specialized training, fairly remunerated and with job offers once this training is completed. It would be nice to find more companies who understand that the interns or apprentices they can count on represent their future, and who believe in them with inspiration and strength from that point of view.

Hope for this generation

I believe this generation of young people deserve good opportunities. She deserves them because she has accepted the difficult rules of the game with which she must conquer her future. Because, in general, she is aware of the low number of opportunities and is willing to seek them out. Because she did not blame previous generations for having reduced her hopes or for having judged her with severity and, very often, with incomprehension.

We are talking about a group of prepared young people, but above all a group of young people with a lot of motivation, who do not hesitate to go where they see a small space of light. A job in the morning, another in the afternoon, a master’s at the same time and German lessons for the remaining moments. We are undoubtedly talking about the generation which benefits from an infinite number of technological means, to which we have sold an idea of ​​stability to, for example, form a family, which is very difficult to achieve.

Thus,  one can attribute a lot of faults to this generation of young people, but one cannot say that they do not work or that they are not looking for opportunities. That she is not prepared to sacrifice her time, her friendships or even her marriage to go and live in another city where a space would be allocated to her. Times past may have been better in many ways, but sticking to them means seeing only one part of reality, which doesn’t do justice to the present that we all have to live in.