Sir Gareth Southgate sat down in Middlesbrough with Taylor, 20, a young man who had been hunting for work for five months, watching his sense of self crumble with each silent rejection from employers. The former England football manager's quiet conversation with Taylor—and two other struggling young men—formed the heart of his new BBC documentary, but the conversation points to something larger: a crisis among British boys and young men that demands a shift in how schools teach them.
The numbers tell a stark story. More than one million young people in the UK are classified as Neet—not in education, employment, or training—the highest level in over 12 years. But the gender gap is particularly striking: since the pandemic, the number of men aged 16-24 classified as Neet has risen by 40 percent, compared to just 7 percent for women. It's a disparity that prompted Southgate to argue that educational approaches need to account for what he calls the "fundamental differences" between boys and girls, not to divide them, but to reach them more effectively.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Southgate was careful to frame this as complementary to ongoing work to empower girls. "There's some brilliant work going on creating better opportunities for women," he said. "We've taken our eyes off some of the issues that men face through their lives and we have to start thinking about how we address those, as well as the issues for women and girls." The documentary, made following a recent report by former Labour minister Alan Milburn on youth unemployment, suggests that young men struggling at school face a cascading crisis: poor attainment leads to behavioural problems, which leads to employability challenges, which then feeds into mental health struggles and a fractured sense of identity.
Taylor's story illustrates this trajectory with painful clarity. After losing his warehouse job, he couldn't find his footing. Employers rarely sent rejection letters or feedback, leaving him to interpret silence as personal failure. "I just thought, 'I'm clearly not good enough, am I?'" he told Southgate. The joblessness spiralled into daily drinking, into anger at his family and friends, and ultimately into thoughts that life wasn't worth living. What pulled him back was human connection and belief in himself—the very things Southgate argues are missing from many young men's lives.
Southgate also criticised the influencers and voices online who exploit young men's vulnerability, "trick young men into believing that success is measured by money or dominance." Against that noise, he advocates for something deceptively simple: mentorship. "There's a lot of people with experience who want to help," he said, calling for "a national movement where we're creating more mentors." It's about giving young men what Taylor needed—someone to reflect back their strengths, to offer direction, and to believe in them when they've stopped believing in themselves.
The documentary suggests that reshaping how we teach and support boys isn't about taking something away from girls or women. It's about recognising that different doesn't mean lesser, and that a generation of young men are falling through gaps that our current system wasn't built to catch. With over one million young people already adrift, the case for change isn't ideological—it's urgent.