Wednesday 13 January 2010

Youth unemployment – Today’s Sun

Today’s Sun newspaper carries a special centre page spread investigating the extent of youth unemployment across the UK.

It includes such statements as 94% of school leavers think it will be hard to get job matching qualifications, along with the figure of 925,000 young people across the UK being unemployed, reported as the second highest in Europe.

The article makes little mention of the government’s plans to tackle this, with just a single line about the future jobs funds instead preferring to give greater sway to Conservative Shadow Works and Pensions Secretary Theresa May, who comments that the “Conservatives have pledged more help for all young people unemployed for six months or more, backed up by hundreds of thousands of new apprenticeships and training opportunities”.

Fine words you might say, but consider that against local action in the High Peak where the Conservatives are in charge of the borough council, where there bid to the future jobs fund will create just 2 new apprentices, as opposed to nearby Labour controlled Bolsover whose bid will employ 105 people in apprenticeships across the Council and in public and voluntary sector organisations - fine words and neat sound bytes but very little action.

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