I think it's bad because these children are just entering the education system, and I think that framing education from the outset as "the purpose of this is to get a job / help the economy" is wrong. I'd like for children to have some time that is focused on education for its own sake. I think getting exposure to different jobs is fine, just that 4 years old is too early.

This is in the context of a report which the UK government asked Milburn to carry out, looking at how to increase employment among young people (18-25 year olds). So the framing is "how can we use the education system to get more people into a job", which I think turns schools even more into an employee factory.

Because there is a massive amount of PR and propaganda to "just accept" low paying jobs and being treated like shit.

The work they advertise and show "what is possible" isn't "owning a bank", or "being CEO". It's the local janitorial service showing how nice they are that they are paying 1$/€ whatever more than minimum wage.

Politicians saying that don't give a rat arse about what the work is actually like, all they see is tax revenue, economic activity going up and most importantly, young people not getting funny ideas about freedom and protests to demand it.

Like, have you never been to a career fair? It's bottom of the barrel stuff.