I’ve recently got involved with a campaign called Battlefront which is all about combatting Youth Unemployment. You can read all about my involvement HERE. Please support the campaign by following the instructions on HERE How can we solve Youth Unemployment for good? Personally I think the solution is groups of people creating something out of scratch and then making it into an asset. Chris Grayling thinks the solution is workfare..

I’ve recently got involved with a campaign called Battlefront which is all about combatting Youth Unemployment. You can read all about my involvement HERE. Please support the campaign by following the instructions on HERE How can we solve Youth Unemployment for good? Personally I think the solution is groups of people creating something out of scratch and then making it into an asset. Chris Grayling thinks the solution is workfare..

Damo-Leeds wrote:I’ve recently got involved with a campaign called Battlefront which is all about combatting Youth Unemployment. You can read all about my involvement HERE. Please support the campaign by following the instructions on HERE How can we solve Youth Unemployment for good? Personally I think the solution is groups of people creating something out of scratch and then making it into an asset. Chris Grayling thinks the solution is workfare.. I thought your mate Clegg had it all sorted mate?

Damo-Leeds wrote:I’ve recently got involved with a campaign called Battlefront which is all about combatting Youth Unemployment. You can read all about my involvement HERE. Please support the campaign by following the instructions on HERE How can we solve Youth Unemployment for good? Personally I think the solution is groups of people creating something out of scratch and then making it into an asset. Chris Grayling thinks the solution is workfare.. I thought your mate Clegg had it all sorted mate?

Whilst Nick Clegg can back ideas of mine he can’t fund them. The usual organisations that people get funding from turned me down. I sent an email to my local MP to pass onto Nick Clegg recently and neither of them have replied so I’ve had to leave the radio podcast aside for now.

Are you suggesting the Deputy PM is a lame duck?

Not at all.

He’s spent a lot of time trying to do what he thinks right with the youth contract. But unfortunately the youth contract has turned out to be an add on to the work programme.

In the end it comes down to addressing the demand side of the economy.

Lots of people ignore this and just focus on supply side issues like the level of skills and education of the young people. They will say that the reason youth unemployment is high is because most of them lack education. But then you point to high rates of graduate unemployment, and they will say...."yes but there are too many graduates, too many people go to university these days".

You need folk to be able to buy stuff. There aren't any.

Really simple economics isn't it, and it works too.

There was one element, just one small thing that made the recession of 91-ish bearable for most businesses who do business with other businesses, apart from ready access to finance, and that was the cash-back effect of 100% tax relief on capital expenditure, I've no idea how much it cost the government in lost tax revenue that year but I'll bet that the sustained level of business that it created more or less leveled the effect out - and kept millions employed.

The problem lies with not giving youth a chance. Two of the things that the Olympics showed were:

1. That the current generation of youngsters is the best in British history - just need to be given a chance.
2. That people should be allowed to be theirselves (which the ex-military man who headed up the volunteers attrubuted their success to).

I know it's an old theme of mine but the American business school model of dumbing down jobs, scripts and targets, etc destroys creativity, ethics and ultimately business value (see eg the banks, the worst cases in the NHS, etc, etc). The problem is weak, inept management, particulary middle management. Big companies with HR departments like to employ clones so as not to make a "mistake." By doing so they often ignore the best people. Senior management should do the interviewing, IMO, were it is feasible.

As a recent personal example, a graduate lad I know was struggling to get a job so he asked if he could work for us for experience. After 6 months he started applying for jobs in our field. Got a job with a major firm and has just come top equal in the world in one of his professional exams. Just shows what our young people can do if given an opportunity.

So, Damo, keep up the good work.

It’ll be interesting to read what other people think of this statement but it’s absolutely spot on. My generation are the product of many generations work – whilst not perfect we certainly deserve to be dealt with a better hand than what some of us are currently been dealt with.

What’s disappointing above all is back in the day the unemployed got to build Leeds Civic Hall which has paved the way for years of civic engagement. The unemployed must have felt they were building a future back then. These days the unemployed get shoved in ASDA stacking shelves.