There has been a lot of discussion this week about relaxing working rules for 16 and 17-year-olds, particularly around evening and weekend work.
UKHospitality has backed the idea, and so do I.
Somewhere along the way, I think we have become so focused on protecting young people from anything remotely difficult that we are in danger of protecting them from the very experiences that help them grow up.
And work is one of those experiences, if not the most important to future prospects.
A Saturday job, a few evening shifts in a restaurant, collecting glasses in a pub, washing dishes, helping at an event or serving customers in a café can teach a young person an enormous amount without them even realising it.
You suddenly have to talk to people you do not know, work alongside different personalities, listen to instructions, turn up when you said you would and understand that other people are relying on you. You make mistakes, somebody tells you about them, and you learn to deal with that. You earn your own money and start understanding what things cost.
Most importantly, you start building confidence.
I have spent my career in hospitality, so perhaps I am biased, but I genuinely believe it is one of the best industries a young person can work in.
You meet people from every walk of life, you learn to communicate, you think on your feet and you quickly realise that the world does not revolve around you.
Those are not just hospitality skills, they are life skills.
According to UKHospitality, around 60% of first jobs are in our sector. That tells you just how important hospitality is when it comes to giving young people that first step into working life.
But we have to actually be able to employ them.
This might annoy a few people, but school cannot teach you everything you need to know about life.
It cannot fully teach you how to deal with another human being when they are frustrated. It cannot recreate being part of a busy team on a Saturday night when everybody has to pull their weight. It cannot replicate the feeling of earning your first wage and knowing that you earned it yourself.
And it certainly cannot recreate the confidence that comes from realising you are actually capable of something.
Young people today are also growing up in a completely different world. There are phones, tablets, social media and screens everywhere.
That is not going away, and technology is not the enemy.
But there has to be a balance.
There is a massive difference between communicating through a screen and standing in front of a customer, looking them in the eye, having a conversation, sorting out a problem and getting on with your job.
You cannot learn every social skill from an iPad.
At some point, you have to deal with people.
And this is where I get frustrated.
We need to stop pretending that every difficult experience is automatically a bad one.
Life is difficult sometimes. Work is difficult sometimes. You will have bad days, awkward conversations, criticism you do not agree with and moments where you mess something up. That is normal.
Of course employers have a responsibility to look after younger members of staff. They should be trained properly, treated fairly and supported.
But supporting somebody is not the same as shielding them from everything.
We cannot baby young people all the way through their teenage years and then, the minute they turn 18, suddenly expect them to know how to behave like adults.
We expect them to work, manage money, deal with pressure, communicate professionally and take responsibility for themselves.
Where exactly are they supposed to learn all of that?
We say we want young people to succeed, but sometimes we seem frightened to let them do anything that might be slightly hard.
You cannot build confidence without being tested.
You cannot build resilience without occasionally getting something wrong.
And you cannot learn how to work without actually working.
I completely understand why there are protections around younger workers and there should continue to be. Education has to come first and nobody sensible is suggesting teenagers should be working ridiculous hours every night.
But giving a 16 or 17-year-old more flexibility to work later on a Friday or Saturday, particularly during school holidays, does not strike me as some terrible attack on young people.
It strikes me as giving them an opportunity.
Sometimes investing in the next generation means education, training or apprenticeships.
And sometimes it is simply somebody giving you a first job and saying, “Come in on Saturday, we will show you what to do.”
That young person might only be clearing tables or washing glasses at the beginning, but they are learning far more than the job in front of them.
They are learning how to become independent, they are learning to prepare themselves for the real world.
Give them sensible protections. Give them good employers. Give them proper training. But above all, give them the chance to work.
