News focus: Do the maths

Aug 20 2009 by John Avison, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

NOBODY would want to spoil the joy of Britain’s thousands of students who collect their A-level results today.

But a huge cloud hovers over these youngsters’ future and over a whole rising generation.

Education has not failed those who passed with flying colours today. But it is failing hundreds of thousands of teenagers much earlier, and this army of innumerate and illiterate – and therefore essentially unemployable – youngsters is growing inexorably.

Earlier this week, figures from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) showed that record numbers of 18 to 24-year-olds are not in school, college or work.

In total, 835,000 18 to 24-year-olds are now Neet – not in education, employment or training – up from 730,000 for the same quarter last year.

The rapid rise is thought to have been fuelled by the recession and a lack of jobs available for school and university leavers.

It gets worse.

The statistics also show a surge in the numbers of 16 to 18-year-olds considered Neet, a figure that now stands at 233,000. Overall, one in six 16 to 24-year-olds (15.9%) are now Neet, 959,000 youngsters in total.

Unemployment statistics show that 928,000 under 25-year-olds, almost one in five, are unemployed.

As many look to higher education as an alternative to joblessness, applications to universities and colleges have increased by 60,000 – but the Government has funded only 13,000 extra places.

Leading universities are effectively closed to those who don’t quite meet their expected grades.

Sean Figg, Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) national organiser said: “This latest misery and chaos caused by the funding crisis in higher education is combined with the threat of the higher university fees and the savage £65m cuts in universities across the country.”

The YFJ is organising a London youth rally on November 28 to protest against the cuts.

If there is any good news for our area, it is that Huddersfield University offers a spread of the more practical and ‘work-relevant’ degrees than many, and may therefore be a better career bet for this tranche of A-level passees.

Stephen Leigh, policy spokesman for the Lockwood-based Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, ran much deeper than fears over the number of graduates unable to find work.

“35% of 16-year-olds are not educated to Level Two, which means their ability to read, write and count is limited.