The Liberal Democrat lifeboat for a lost generation: Tackling youth unemployment

Young people looking for a job would not go more than three months without a right of access to a place in work, training, or education, under plans unveiled by Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg.

With the recession hitting the youngest the hardest, Nick Clegg has outlined new proposals to prevent people leaving school, college and university being condemned to long-term unemployment. They include:

• Introducing a new Paid Internship scheme - until the end of 2010 - with a total of 800,000 places, where young people would be able to work for up to three months with any employer, without cost to the employer. Each intern would be paid a new Training Allowance of £55 per week, with employers required to give help with CV writing and offer time off to look for a job
  
  
• Funding 10,000 more university places and 50,000 more college-based Foundation Degree places this year
  
  
• Fully funding adult apprenticeships to give more young people access to vocational training in the workplace and improve their skills
  
  
• Introducing a new ‘90 day promise’ after three months unemployment, instead of the current 10 months, to make available a place in work, training, education or an internship

These proposals would all be paid for immediately by scrapping the pointless VAT cut now rather than in January.

Launching the proposals, Nick Clegg said:

“This recession is at risk of leaving the most poisonous legacy of all: a jobless generation.

“Parents used to worry about whether their children could get onto the housing ladder, now the concern has spread to whether they can even get a job.

“The Government’s shamefully inadequate response allows young people to fester on benefits for almost a year before offering real help, while the Tories are typically silent on what they would do.

“We must provide a lifeboat to this lost generation. Funding extra university and college places, introducing a paid internship scheme and creating more apprenticeships would be vital support for young people as they enter the workforce this autumn.

“Rather than allowing someone to sit at home on benefits, young people could gain invaluable experience and skills in an actual workplace. For the cost of just two days of the pointless VAT cut, a paid internship scheme could provide hope to hundreds of thousands of young people.”