NASUWT: Youth unemployment report “valuable and relevant” contribution to debate
Commenting on the Report of the ACEVO Commission on Youth Unemployment, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, said:
“No civilised society can tolerate the waste of talent and loss of opportunity represented by high and persistent levels of youth unemployment.
“The fact that one in five of all young people in this country are not currently in employment, education or training and that a quarter of a million have been unemployed for over a year can, without any fear of exaggeration, be described, as in this report, as one of the gravest crises facing this country.
“For this reason, the NASUWT has continued to take the lead in calling for robust and sustained action by the Coalition Government to tackle the increasingly dire circumstances in which many young people find themselves.
“As teachers and school leaders, the NASUWT’s members remain clear that securing the future life chances of the children and young people they teach depends on an active and coherent national strategy for education, training and jobs rather than on a policy based, as currently, on the vagaries of the free market.
“The NASUWT, therefore, welcomes the publication of the Report of the ACEVO Commission on Youth Unemployment as a valuable and relevant contribution to the ongoing debate about the future direction of policy in this area.
“The call by the Commission for a commitment by the Coalition Government to implement an economic strategy that creates more high quality job opportunities for young people and to provide them with the education, training and employment advice services required to allow them to make informed choices about their future resonates with key NASUWT concerns.
“All those with an interest in this area should reflect upon the thoughtful and considered analysis of the youth unemployment crisis and potential solutions to it, set out by the Commission’s Report.
“We cannot afford the lost generation of young people which this Government seems determined to create.”
ENDS
Stuart Gannon
NASUWT Press Office
Tel: 020 7420 9681
Mobile (and out of hours contact): 07966 198894
Address: 5 King Street , Covent Garden, London, WC2E 8SD
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