Record number of young people not in education, work or training
In the counter-intuitive world of youth employment, the think tank Demos has identified “that some qualifications harm young people’s chances of securing a job”.
Demos believes that National Vocational Qualifications at levels one and two – equivalent to GCSEs – do nothing to protect young people against unemployment.
The prospect of persistent 20% levels of youth unemployment – which in my mind’s eye is a national disgrace – is highlighted by this article in the Guardian.
While this is an acute and worrying national problem it does have particularly challenging manifestations in rural areas, where difficulty in accessing Further Education provision and a low stock of jobs pose real challenges for those seeking to enter the labour market.
In the current rush to deregulate and “liberalise” the operation of further education, giving local college much more self determination may well be a good thing – those of us in rural areas with any influence need to make sure in the light of the scale of this challenge that they don’t take their eye off the rural ball.