[Lilly]

Fantastic news for 18-24-year-old in Surrey, especially in Woking, Guildford and Staines (there are other areas too) who have been without employment for a year or more:
According to Get Surrey more than 2.2 million pounds of funding has been supplied to help our youth back into jobs. The council believes this will be an opportunity for the county to develop economically and recover from the recession.

A BBC News article earlier this month said that a million UK youths are unemployed.

I think it is really important for our youth to work. Unemployment for such a long period of time can scar them. Obviously it is scaring to any person but what I noticed with my friends who were made redundant recently, was that they have experience backing them and know they will find an opportunity sooner or later. Whereas if you don’t have any experience to fall back on, it is worrying…

The Prince’s Trust set out on a campaign which raises money to give support to these youths and also to get them employed.
The Princes’s Trust along with the council are both companies who currently offer Surrey jobs

It is great to know that focus is still placed on the youth because they are our future. What will happen if the UK is back in full steam but we have a million 24-28 year olds with insufficient work experience?

[Josie]

Lilly lets hope this plan of thiers makes some headway! What I don't understand is what jobs are they going to get them into? With so many people to choose from out there right now it is a bit hard to see how companies would choose someone young and inexperienced over someone who could do the job with far less training etc...

When the economy is back up and running then I do think there will be problems with people out of jobs still as your right - these kids will be older and still not had much in the way of work experience! Scary thought isn't it?

[Lilly]

Well, it seems as if most companies, the media and goverment actually think it is a win-win situation to get these youngsters into apprenticeships. This week it is NAtional Apprentice Week and it seems places like B&Q, Morrisons and Cross Rail are planning to appoint thousands of apprentices during the next year across the UK.
Apparently it is good for the company because studies has shown that apprentices work harder and improve faster.
I agree with you that obviously in recovery you would like to get people to help get things done instead of having to take time to teach them. But I also think recovery isn't here yet and taking the time to teach young ones new skills will boost our future workforce and we will be ready for recovery then. Youngsters really need a morale boost, so I am really keen on this.

[Josie]

That does sound very good to me Lilly - I think in times like this the younger work force do get over looked as more skilled people are getting jobs instead. College and school leavers are getting over looked and this will affect the economy greatly when it recovers as they will have no where to fit in due to the fact that all the jobs for trainees will go to the next round of graduates and leave them out in the cold with no skills to fight the competition etc... Something definately needs to be done to prevent this and these apprenticeship programmes do definitely sound like the way to go!

[Lilly]

You are so right. Will they be referred to as the recession generation? What an absolutely crappy way to start your "adult" life. People can say what they want, but circumstances can influence your future greatly. Sure it doesn't defy you and there are plenty of go-getters out there that will turn the situation around for themeselves...However, my heart goes out to the kids who really are stuck in circumstances...possibly their parents both lost their jobs etc etc...
The Government must look at these kids, and it is great that more companies open up opportunities.

[Josie]

Can you imagine that? Being referred to as being part of the "recession generation"? I mean what is that anyway?

It does seem that no matter how much you try at the moment though finding work can be a very long and drawn out process, its not a surprise people may just stop trying to find jobs full stop really is it?

Take my friends sister for example - she has been trying to find a job for nearly 6 months now since leaving college and doing a temp job for 3 months, but it has been so hard for her.

Interview after Interview, rejection after rejection and really and truly she could have done most of the jobs she went for, they just kept hiri8ng people with more experience! she had 3 months experience out of college so imagine how all those with none whatsoever will cope trying to find work?

Its awful!