Why cant we stop ‘bashing’ our young people and support them for once!

On the eve of National Apprenticeship Week, with anticipation and an appetite to encourage young people and employers that an apprenticeship is a cost effective and efficient route to continue education and learn new skills, I am amazed at the ‘youth bashing’ that I continually see and despair of!

When will we as nation realize that if we continue to kick our young people when they are down and believe that the responsibility is with others and not everyone, our young people will continue to be under-skilled, under supported and under utilized in our workforce. Then we wonder why they don’t seem to ‘conform’ to what we see as normal.

When was it ‘normal’ to disregard the needs of a whole generation and feel OK about it?!!!

It is crazy that we hear that ‘our’ government are not only scrapping EMA, which helps thousands of young people to continue their education, but also scrapping the apprentice guarantee for 17-18 year olds.  And then a reckless journalist from the Telegraph who clearly knows no better, decides that they should write an article about how many apprentices ‘don’t’ achieve giving the government another reason to cut the disappearing investment that goes into supporting our young people to find their place in the workforce.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/8305821/Apprentice-drop-out-rate-running-above-25pc.html#disqus_thread

It is easy to have a go at young people without actually really looking into the successes as well as the young people who find an apprentice is just not for them I’m sure the said journalist and indeed many of us would not be too happy every time we started something with all the enthusiasm in the world just to drop out before we have finished?

I agree that sometimes many young people make the wrong choice but so do we all.  Come-on, why don’t we all get real and focus on the opposite 75% who do achieve for once, and start to talk about the ‘good’ job that has been done with these young people and also what an impact these young people have had.

We have to at some point find some balance about our opinions and come to our senses and give young people a chance.  Apprenticeships can not only change the lives of the young people who undertake them, the families within which these young people live, and quite clearly the employers within which they work.

Lets find some good news about our young people for once and see what happens.  You never know we may like how it feels.