Something we did - we told our about-to-graduate-high-school kids, "next year and for subsequent years, while you live at home, you will either do a course or get a job. If you cannot get a paying job, you will be a volunteer. Your choice."
The reason - we wanted them to continue to have some sort of work ethic and to feel productive in some way. Also, when later on looking for a job, it looks a lot better on your resumé to be able to explain WHY you have been unemployed for so long. "I was doing a few courses at TAFE..." [our uni alternative] or "I've been visiting the sick and elderly in local nursing homes."
easy child 2/difficult child 2 got a job soon after finishing school. difficult child 1 started a TAFE course and also did one day a week at the local zoo. I had to drive him to the zoo and home again, it was an hour round trip, twice a day until we found someone who could get him there in the morning (before sunrise, a lot of the time). He was unpaid but worked from 7.30 am to 5.30 pm, mostly heavy manual work (when you're wheeling a barrowload of chopped vegetables to a herd of Highland cattle and a Brahmin bull, it's heavy manual work just to avoid getting trodden on!)
We did things to support our kids (such as the long drive) because it was something, ANYTHING, that was heading in the direction of a lifetime path. Although he's now changed direction, he made a lot of really good progress as a result of that work. It's also where he met girlfriend - another volunteer. It was a good investment of his time, and ours.
But setting up that rule for someone about to finish school - it's a good rule. Making it easier by including voluntary work, you can MAKE your own work by simply visiting elderly neighbours and mowing lawns for them, or cleaning gutters. Or dropping in randomly to a nursing home or retirement home just to talk (which means listen) to residents there. If it's OK with people, a really good project is to take a tape recorder, with permission, and transcribe the person's life story. It's a really good way to develop listening skills, typing skills, interview skills (which come in naturally at a later stage - "Mrs Smith, will you tell me a bit more about how you survived the really cold winters?"). And this is material we are rapidly losing from our cultural collection, as people die without passing it on.
You need to ask permission and often that permission comes with strict boundaries which should be respected, such as "This is for my family's ears only." At a later stage the person may change their mind and allow wider broadcast, but you are performing a valuable service to the community at large in so many ways. And you CAN make a living out of this, when you get good at it. Even when you are just starting out you may be able to get a government grant for it, to pay for materials and even some of the time involved. For funding, the people to approach would be veteran's organisations, historical societies and a number of local government bodies which may want to know more about certain specific things (in which case, they may direct you to certain people to interview).
By interviewing people, you are learning new social skills; you are helping a possibly lonely old person feel valued and considered; you are preserving valuable heritage material for posterity. And with regard to helping a lonely old person, this can improve their physical and mental well-being to the point where it really can have an impact on health costs in the country.
And when at a later stage you apply for a 'real' job, having this on your resume tells a prospective employer a lot of good things about you.
A difficult child may need his hand held a lot, especially in the beginning. But as they discover, somewhere out there in the old and wrinklies, there are other exGFGs who can tell them a thing or two about rebellion, individuality and thumbing a nose (or worse) at authority. It will hook them in!
Marg