Dhruv Nathalal, 19, does not believe teenagers are being taught well enough about how to enter the jobs market
A teenager who has applied for up to 400 jobs in the past year says schools are failing to prepare young people for the realities of finding work. Dhruv Nathalal, 19, says he has spent the last 12 months applying for retail, hospitality, and entry-level roles after doing two college courses in information technology and cyber security.
He has only secured two interviews. Dhruv decided not to go to university as he wasn’t confident it would improve his job prospects, and said he saw lots of young people with “good degrees” still struggling to find work.
According to the Office for National Statistics, 16 per cent of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 are not in education, employment, or training (NEETs). This week, PM Andy Burnham announced plans to give students in England the opportunity to study subjects like AI, manufacturing, and courses linked to local industries in an attempt to tackle the rising rates of youth unemployment.
Dhruv, from Wimbledon, believes that schools do a good job of helping students get qualifications, but leave something to be desired in preparing young people for the practicalities of entering the job market. He also rejects the idea that young people are unwilling to work, arguing that many simply do not know how to break into the labour market.
Dhruv, who lives at home with his parents, said: “I’ve applied for like, three or four hundred jobs in the last year. It’s honestly just draining. “I’m looking for anything to get me by, but it’s been a mission. It hasn’t been easy.
“School gives you the qualifications, but it won’t give you the skills you need. They don’t build you up for what you actually need in work.”
Having always been interested in technology, he studied IT at GCSE before going to college to study IT and cyber security, graduating in June 2025 having passed both modules. Dhruv decided against going to university. He said: “I don’t really see many benefits to university. It doesn’t seem to have as much value as it did before. I’m going to spend years getting a degree and still end up in exactly the same position afterwards. There are loads of people with ‘good’ degrees struggling to get into work.”
In July 2025, he started to look for jobs related to his course as well as other entry-level roles. Dhruv said: “When I started looking, I didn’t have a good CV or any experience. I was applying for jobs against people who have several years’ experience. How can I compete with that?”
He has now spent the last year searching for work while trying to improve his CV and employability through the SPEAR programme. He said that support highlighted the gaps left by mainstream education, particularly around CV writing, interview prep and understanding what employers expect.
The government said the courses they intend to implement would be available from Year 10, and linked to local industries and designed to give children a clearer pathway into work.
Dhruv said: “I wish I could’ve had that when I was in education – it would definitely help. I think younger generations need technical skills, they especially need skills in tech fields, especially because AI is on the rise, and taking lots of graduate jobs.
“I think older people with their own companies might find it harder to adapt to technological advances, so having young people equipped with those skills when they leave school would be great, it would definitely bring down unemployment.”
Dhruv had a job interview last week, and feels “more optimistic” about his future than he did before. He’s still waiting to hear back. In the future, he plans to head back to education, do another course and hopefully work a part time job to fund it.
He said: “I love tech and IT, so I’d love to have a job in that. My dream job used to be a data analyst.”
