‘It’s been a CATASTROPHE’: PETER HITCHENS hammers ‘nugatory’ college levels and surge in Gen Z joblessness in newest episode of the Alas Vine and Hitchens podcast with SARAH VINE

Acclaimed broadcaster Peter Hitchens has surprisingly defended Gen Z in their struggle to find stable and fulfilling work, blaming universities for offering ‘useless’ degrees that have left a generation unfit for the job market.

In response to new figures which show one in four young adults are not either working or seeking a job, the best-selling author told co-host Sarah Vine that the statistic is unsurprising given the opportunities for ‘exciting or taxing’ work being so limited.

Hitchens went on to criticise higher education, declaring that ‘so few jobs having anything to do with university’, in the latest episode of the Alas Vine & Hitchens podcast.

Hitchens said: ‘Gen Z can’t get work, the poor things, which is either exciting or taxing, it is almost impossible.

‘They are either stuck at a screen, or sitting at a desk, or indeed sitting at home staring at a screen; we used to be able to go and get hard jobs.

‘It is a catastrophe. In many cases, young people have been sent off to universities for worthless degrees which have produced nothing for them at all.

‘They’d have been much better off being apprentices to plumbers or electricians: they would have been able to look forward to a much more abundant and satisfying life.’

Sarah Vine and Peter Hitchens discuss work and Gen Z on their new Mail podcast Alas Vine & Hitchens. Listen here

Hitchens warned listeners that the result of this monetised education system would be an increasing in the amount of people claiming benefits, risking the future of the ‘entire economy’.

‘There’s a huge problem coming’, Hitchens explained. ‘The amounts of money we’re spending on paying people not to work is not just disastrous in its own right.

‘It destroys the lives of those we pay. It will destroy the economy.

‘In the end, what will happen is that our entire civilisation will be swept away by such a gigantic wave of inflation, that the only solution to a welfare state as chaotically grotesquely huge as ours will be a catastrophe.

‘The lack of urgency among politicians in dealing with this problem just gives me the shivers.’

Peter Hitchens: ‘Young people have been sent off to universities for worthless degrees which have produced nothing for them at all.’ Listen here

 Mail columnist Sarah Vine disagreed with her outspoken counterpart, arguing instead that the young people of this generation are uniquely workshy.

She added that Gen Z seem incapable of viewing jobs as a ‘stepping stone’, where people start at the bottom and gradually move on to bigger and better things.

Vine argued: ‘There seems to be this notion that that all work must be fulfilling and wonderful. I did a lot of rubbish jobs and then I was very lucky.

‘I have always tried to teach that when you get a job, try and be the solution, not the problem. It’ll be a stepping stone towards something more interesting.

‘Generally, if you have the right attitude, people will put more things your way.’

Listen to Alas Vine & Hitchens, with Sarah Vine and Peter Hitchens wherever you get your podcasts now. New episodes released every Wednesday.