Take a read through Parent Motivators: A Parent’s Guide To Helping Graudates Find Work, as published by BIS under Peter Mandelson’s reign, and you find this advice on page 3 for parents wanting to help their children:
Identify who you know that might be able to help. If they want to work in architecture, travel, etc. is there a friend of a friend who may be able to help set up some work experience or job shadowing?
Ah yes, getting an internship through parental contacts. I’m sure I heard somewhere a Labour politician praising Nick Clegg’s parents for doing just what the Labour government urged all parents to do…
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3 Comments
Beyond the (correct) point that you make, this leaflet offers an insight into a very strange, but increasingly common, mentality, shared by New Labour and many parents: that adults in their twenties are still children. It is full of patronising and obvious points, but the underlying assumption is that graduates (i.e. aged at a minimum 21, and with a higher education) need very basic guidance from their parents. Most people in their twenties in the world today, and in human history, have been full-time members of the workforce for several years, and do not need their hands held in this way. Why should UK graduates be regarded as infants?
Lord Mandelson knows nothing about nepotism. Nor do the Milibands, Hilary Benn or Harriet Harman.
It’s entirely obvious that if you have a system where people can help out their family and friends career-wise, they will do it. It’s not about criticising people that do, but trying to prevent that from being a way to get ahead.