By Josh Butterworth. Josh is our Thailand Program Coordinator, and lives in Thailand.
This could be me. In fact, only nine months ago, it was. Therefore, none of the thoughts I express in this article are negative judgements. I know just how hard it can be to make it on your own as a young person in this day and age.
Sadly, I was not shocked to read a recent BBC article about the large number of young people in their late 20s still living with their parents in the UK. From 2006 to 2024, the number of 25 to 34 year olds living at home had increased from 13% to 18%.
There are many factors that have caused this sad statistic. Of course, the pandemic played a very significant role, but it is the inability to afford rent and have even a slight chance of saving that’s having the biggest influence.
I know just how much living with your parents can affect confidence, in terms of career, relationships, and life in general. An inability to afford a home and have a space of your own as an adult is completely demoralizing, in my opinion at least. And no possibility of saving in a country that seems to get ever more expensive by the day can slowly chip away at you. So I can completely empathize with everyone in this situation.
For a year and a half, I lived with my dad in a village on the outskirts of Cambridge as a man in his late 20s, before taking a very big risk in April of last year. It has changed my life forever, I left the UK. But I wasn’t the only one. According to an article by CNN, over 10,000 millionaires left the UK last year. Of course, I do not fall into that category, but the point I am trying to make is that Great Britain isn’t such a great place for anyone at the moment, rich or not.
I cannot deny that there are many brilliant things about the country I call home, but in my opinion, the UK is an incredibly tough place to make a life and career at the moment.
It is especially difficult for recent graduates, an article by the Financial Times stated that on average, graduate schemes in the UK received 140 applicants for each position in 2024. This is forcing highly educated young people into jobs in hospitality, retail, and so on, and causing many of them to end up living back at home with their parents.
But there is one solution which not only recaptures confidence and creates independence, but also moves you towards financial security and improves your career prospects down the line. That solution is teaching abroad. And as well as the benefits I mentioned above, it also gives you the opportunity to travel, see the world, and get some perspective.
I myself was a teacher, first in China and then in Thailand, I have now moved away from the classroom but still live outside of the UK. Living abroad has given me so much confidence. In the past nine months I have progressed in my career, become more financially secure, stated a relationship, improved my health, and so much more. These are all things I was struggling to do living in the UK, in my dad’s house.
So it is my plea to anyone reading this, who is in the same position as I was, please consider teaching abroad as an opportunity to kickstart your new life. A new life where the confidence of living in another country bleeds into your soul, skills are learned each day as you tackle new problems, and you can become the person you want to be. And wherever you choose to teach, as long as you are sensible with your spending, you can live independently in your own space and have a good quality of life in an exciting country, as adult.
And I must be transparent, there are costs associated with getting started, but living at home should give you the ability to save for those.
Check out our program pages and see if any of them appeal to you. You could teach in Thailand, China, Vietnam, Poland, or Hungary. If you have any questions then please email me directly, at josh@impact-teaching.com. I would be very happy to help you and see if we can be the spark to get your new life started.
Thanks for reading, and a big thanks to my dad, as well as all the parents who are still putting up with their adult children at home.
Good luck with everything!
