Education & Skills 
The number of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) remains high on the political agenda as we await the much-anticipated Milburn review to be published later this Autumn. In September, at the Liberal Democrat Party Conference, we held an event focussed on innovating in youth employment. One of the panellists for this event was Lottie Wilson, Chair of the English Young Liberals, who shared her perspectives on the youth employment crisis as a young person.
Earlier this month, I sat down with Lottie to discuss her role in the Young Liberals, her big takeaways from conference, and mostly importantly, what she wishes more politicians would understand about being a young person today.
A Young Person in Politics
Lottie is a 20-year-old Liberal Arts student at the University of Nottingham. She is currently in her placement year and has recently started working in the parliamentary office of Ben Maguire MP, who she previously campaigned for in his North Cornwall constituency.
While noting a strong political upbringing due to her dad, who always encouraged her to voice her opinion and taught her the importance of a strong, evidence-based argument, Lottie took the decision to become more personally involved in politics following the 2024 general election, which she just missed out on voting in, as she wasn’t yet 18. She was encouraged to join the Young Liberals and later successfully ran to become Devon and Cornwall Regional Chair. In 2026, she was elected Chair of the English Young Liberals (EYL), a role she holds alongside her regional position.
In her role as Chair of the EYL, Lottie’s core duties include attending and running federal executive meetings and attending English party board meetings, however she doesn’t see her role as fixed, and has big aims for the future of the EYL…
“Something I’m really passionate about for next year is that I really see [EYL’s] strength as an education body… so making sure that [members] leave with transferable skills and making sure that they leave feeling like they gained something to put on a CV is really important, even if they don’t become an officer.”
A Broken Promise
When asked what she would most like politicians and the wider public to understand about being young today, Lottie answered with one word, “hopelessness”. She described an educations system built on an implicit deal: work hard, achieve good grades, and a good job will follow. For many in her generation, she argues, this deal no longer holds up. Young people are doing what is asked of them, keeping their heads down at school securing university places and going on to master’s degrees and PhDs, yet they are still not finding the work or opportunities they were told to expect.
“[At school] you’re working towards your exams and to get really good grades because you’re given this promise that you’ll get a really good job if you do that. But that promise is gone.”
Lottie sees disengagement from education as an understandable response to this rather than a personal failing. She is critical of the way conversations about NEET rates and economic inactivity can imply that young people are to blame, when “the phrase ‘why bother’ is constantly circulating in the backs of our heads”. In her view, the policy responses should be to create “a light at the end of the tunnel” that gives young people something meaningful to work towards.
“I would never blame anyone in my generation for coming to the conclusion that [engaging with education] is kind of pointless. So, we need to make it not pointless. That’s the answer.”
Looking Beyond the NEET Figures
Lottie also argued that the focus on young people who are currently NEET risks missing a wider group. Students and graduates fall outside the NEET category by definition, but if education no longer reliably leads into work, then their prospects need attention too.
“We can’t be like, ‘oh, it’s fine, they’re not NEET, they’re in education…’ because actually there isn’t that direct link anymore [between going to university and finding a job].”
She drew on her own experience here. She had always assumed she would go to university, and treated it as the goal she was working towards. When she arrived, it was the not the destinations she had imagined, and she was left without a clear sense of what came next. She described the strain of years spent working towards grades with no clear payoff.
“There’s only so many years you can take with the end goal being a number or a piece of paper or a grade.”
Her parliamentary placement has given her renewed direction. She sees placements and industry experience more broadly as one way to counter the hopelessness she described, because they give young people a view of what the world of work could hold. She was clear that this is not an argument for prioritising graduates. She noted that “there are so many roles in society… that are so important, that have different pathways”, and she called for greater vocational provision in colleges and sixth forms, in areas such as construction and hairdressing.
“Vocational education is a huge part of the answer.”
Opening the Door
Lottie’s central message to politicians was about who gets a seat at the table. She was candid that she felt “completely unqualified” when she joined the conference panels alongside more experienced speakers. She argued that this feeling, which she thinks social media makes worse through constant comparison, is a bigger barrier that any lack of interest. Young people do want to participate, but many doubt they belong.
“It’s not [that] we don’t want to be there, it’s that we think we shouldn’t [be there] and you have to tell us otherwise.”
For Lottie, this places the responsibility on older generations and institutions to reach out to young people directly, rather than waiting for them to come forward.
“You can’t be making change about us without us… It can’t be an expectation on us to bang down the doors. It has to be flung wide open from the inside.”
She also made the case for young people’s testimony and experiences to sit alongside data. For example, before joining our panel at conference, she had read the research published by Policy Connect and the findings rang true with her. However, she felt that figures alone were unlikely to change the minds of people who are already sceptical about young people’s concerns, and that hearing directly from young people can reach audiences that statistics do not.
Reasons for Optimism
Despite the challenges she described, Lottie was keen to stress that she is “not as much of a pessimist as this has made it sound”. She believes some core things have to change, but she also believes that they can.
Much of her optimism comes from her experience at conference. She went into the panels expecting to play a ‘token’ role, with questions directed mainly at more experienced speakers. Instead, she found that audiences were interested in her perspective.
“I kind of went into thinking… I’m going to kind of be the token young person. I’ll say a bit about my experience, but everyone wants to talk to the experts. But actually, people really wanted to hear from my experience.”
This links to her wider point about opening the door to young people. Lottie believes young people already have ideas about how things could be different, and that they talk about them among themselves all the time. What they need is for those in positions of influence to listen and act. Conference showed her that this willingness exists.
“There are people in Parliament and there are people in the generations above us that do want to help… It’s not all doom and gloom. There are the people out there who want to listen.”
Her own experience this year also points to what can change when young people are given a way in. After a period at university when she felt she had lost direction, her parliamentary placement has given her a clear sense of purpose. In her words, “it’s given me that direction again. It’s given me something to look forward to again.” She hopes to return to Parliament after graduating. Through her role at the EYL, she also wants to make sure other young people leave with skills and confidence they can build on.
Looking Ahead
Lottie’s reflections speak directly to the work of the Education and Skills team. Our Skills Commission’s recent report, Earning or Learning, set out a roadmap for reducing the number of NEET young people, informed by the experiences of young people. Lottie’s message, however, is a reminder that listening to young people should not just be a single stage of a research process. As the Skills Commission prepares to launch its upcoming inquiry into apprenticeships, it is important to keep her message in mind. Apprenticeships are one of the clearest routes that combine earning and learning, and they could offer the kind of direction and purpose that Lottie has found in her own placement. Whether they will depend on our understanding how young people experience them, from finding out about opportunities to completing their training. In Lottie’s words, change cannot be made “about us without us”, so young people should be invited to participate at any discussion regarding their future.
You can read our Earning or Learning report here: https://policyconnect.org.uk/report/earning-or-learning-a-new-agenda-for-youth-neet-reduction/.
To find out more about our upcoming work, please contact Max Bishop (max.bishop@policyconnect.org.uk).
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