Cultures of top-down decision-making in schools and workplaces mean that the voices of students and young workers are rarely elicited or heard.

While many young people do not feel listened to at school and most leave school without any experience of participatory decision-making or any expectation that they should play a part in the decision-making of the institutions they work in, this is particularly the case for young people who don’t go to university.

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Many of the young people we spoke with conveyed a strong sense of feeling unheard and unseen at school – lacking not only opportunities to express how they felt but also any meaningful say in shaping their own learning experiences.

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Our survey data tells a similar story. Young people who said they were not at all likely to go to university were much less likely than those who said they were very likely to go to university to say that they were noticed and listened to by their teachers (49% vs 74%). Those from low-income backgrounds, Black Caribbean and Mixed ethnicities, LGBT students and those with SEND were also much less likely to say that they felt noticed or listened to by their teachers or received encouragement from them.

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For many young people, their experiences of feeling unheard at school are carried into the workplace. This is especially the case for young people with mental health conditions or histories of unfair treatment or bullying at school who were more likely to experience poor workplace relationships and more limited employee voice. In addition, casual and temporary employment is associated with more limited employee voice than apprenticeships and stable work. This highlights the precarious and isolating nature of casual and temporary work, where opportunities for mentoring, teamwork and meaningful participation are typically limited.

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More detailed findings with survey and interview data can be found in our Precarious Transitions summary report, published in November 2025.

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