From age 11, James Young went to Middle Street Commercial School, which he left in 1939 to attend a municipal college, but being only 15 he was part of the evacuation of children from South Shields. He returned to the college the following year and attended in the evenings.

In 1947 he was accepted into Kings College, Durham, where he studied geography (with History and Geology as subsidiary subjects), and in 1950 he graduated with his BA. He stayed on a further year to get his Diploma of Education.

His first teaching posts in 1951 and 1952 were as a temporary supply teacher at Bedlington Grammar School, and Brown Rigg Residential School. His first permanent post was at Newham Manor School, where he stayed until Easter, 1955. He then taught at Middle Street Central School (Newcastle) from Easter, 1955, to 1969 with a spell at Ashington Road Technical School from 1955 to 1958.

In 1960 he moved on to Manor Park Technical School, and on 1st January, 1966, to the George Stephenson Grammar School in Newcastle until the end of 1967, when he joined the staff of South Shields Grammar-Technical School for Boys as Head of Geography, replacing Les Seaword.