Young people need to get summer jobs to build up their resilience for the real world, a psychotherapist has said.
It comes after Times of London Columnist Alice Thomson criticised a lack of part-time working by younger people in the UK.
Britain has one of the lowest rates of part-time employment in the world for young people.
"It’s not Dickensian cruelty to ask children to participate in the workforce, it’s sensible," she wrote.
Psychotherapist and Clinical Director of Therapy Institute Richard Hogan told Newstalk Breakfast he agrees.
"I think more than ever this cohort of adolescents need to get out there and work a summer job," he said.
"So much was denied to them because of COVID restrictions; they've missed out on the Gaeltacht, they've missed out on Scouts and going away on school trips.
"Anxiety is a fear of an unknown future event with a paradigm underneath it: that you believe you haven't got the ability to meet an unknown future event."
'I met my wife'
Mr Hogan said young people need to build up their resilience.
"They need memories of being out there and working and meeting people and getting feedback - that's so crucial," he said.
"During adolescents brain regions associated with feedback are more sensitive, so the feedback they get from these jobs is really important.
"But also I met my wife on one of these summer jobs - so the world that can await out there for, you and the potential of what can happen, is incredible".
'The value of money'
Mr Hogan said the more people they deal with the better.
"You get to meet really kind, caring and decent people; you get to meet really difficult and hard people," he said.
"That is such an important part of developing your resilience in the world.
"But also on top of that then you get to understand the value of money because you earn the money and then you buy something."
A waiter at a restaurant, 15-5-13. Image: Images of Birmingham Premium / AlamyMr Hogan said some parents may want to shield their children out of guilt.
"I think parents have never had it so hard," he said.
"I think parenting is far more difficult and irrevocably changed since we were kids.
"Both parents have to get out there and work and all the rest of it.
"I think it's a bit of a corollary of that, maybe a position of guilt because you don't see your child as much as you'd like".
Mr Hogan said such an approach can be misplaced.
"Your child needs to go out and work, your child needs to go out and see the world," he said.
"That's a part of their development, that's a part of building skills".
Mr Hogan said a job is also a way of 'defeating' disrupted sleep patterns during the summer.
He added that younger people who work won't have such a 'dramatic fall' when they go into full-time employment.
