When I was 5, I did a number of things which you could call hobbies. I had swimming, ballet and tennis classes outside of school and in school I attended the extra-curricular dance and arts and crafts club. This was the average for any child at that age. Now, 10 years later, I have hardly anything that could be deemed acceptable under the ‘hobbies and interests’ section of a CV or in future, a UCAS form.

As a young child, you can be as good or as bad as you like at whatever you find fun and no one would bat an eyelid. And not only that, but you could also call anything a hobby. Literally anything. You could say that your hobby was playing with trains or building Lego and that would be totally acceptable. If you’re a teenager, or by extension an adult, unless you were part of the Train Collectors Society or the Brickish Association nobody would really take it seriously.

Some time ago, I realised that I had no real hobbies to speak of. I did some creative writing occasionally, and liked to play piano but that was it. I knew that I had to rectify this situation, especially with applications for work experience fast approaching. So I took to searching the internet for various things I could do and for the most part, my efforts were in vain. I quickly realised that it was hard enough to find clubs for young people to join if they were talented in a particular skill, let alone for people interested in trying out something new. My local gym offers plenty of activities for young children and adults, but rarely anything for teenagers. This seemed to be the same for a lot of other websites I looked at, which was rather disappointing.

So why is this? According to a BBC news article published last year, the government has cut youth services spending by 36% since 2012. The reason for this is, in the opinion of Tory MP Tim Loughton, is that “Because they don't have to statutorily provide youth services they have too often been at the top of the queue when cuts come along." However this is not a good enough excuse. Not providing enough youth services could lead to higher crime rates and young people dropping out of the education system which in the long term will be an even bigger strain on government resources than if they just maintained the same budget as they did previously.

In my opinion, there should be more youth services for teenagers outside the usual sports squads. There should be clubs for people of all ages and all abilities and the information for these clubs should be advertised and easily accessible. Young people won’t go to these activities if they have to spend hours scavenging for it, which would cause these activities to stop running due to lack of interest. Being able to go to a community centre for example in order to pursue a new interest has proven to be so beneficial. There isn’t a community centre in my area, and any in my neighbouring boroughs cater to a specific group of people, whether it’s the elder a certain religious group. These activity services should be offered especially to young adults while they embark on one of the toughest and most important decision in their lives: what career they want to have when they’re an adult. How can they even begin to answer this question if they haven’t been able to find out what their interests are? 

 

Natalie Mierswa, Wimbledon High School