The National Citizen Service has published a new report which explores the ambitions of teenagers over the twentieth and twenty first centuries.
An exploration of teenage workplace aspirations and ambitions through generations since WW1 was commissioned to mark the Centenary of the First World War.
It analyses the characteristics of today’s generation against a backdrop of the generations which came before them.
The generations included in the report include: The Lost Generation (born 1885-900); the Greatest Generation (born 1901-1924); the Silent Generation (born 1925-1942); the Baby Boomers (born 1943-1960); Generation X (born 1961-1982); Generation Y (born 1983-2001); and Generation Citizen (the cohort at the end of Generation Y, born 1995-2001).
Members from each generation (barring the Lost Generation) were surveyed on a range of issues from their ambitions and aspirations when they were teenagers, to those who they considered role models in their teenage years. The Lost Generation’s responses were postulated by Dr. Heather Ellis of Liverpool Hope University.
The Lost Generation were among the first to experience free compulsory primary education, and thus their career aspirations were significantly higher than previous generations.
The first experiences of work for most of the boys in this generation was in the armed forces, whilst girls also aided the war effort in roles such as nurses.
After analysing the responses from each sample in the survey, the CEO of the National Citizen Service, Michael Lynas, highlighted that the youngest generation (Generation Y), are “the most ambitious, entrepreneurial and civically minded since the Greatest Generation”.
To read the report in its entirety, click here.
Images courtesy of the National Citizen Service
Posted by: Daniel Barry, Centenary News