Youth unemployment

Conference notes the record levels of youth unemployment in the UK.
This is likely to have an effect of demotivating pupils. Many do not
see the point in working hard at school when they are more likely to
end up unemployed than otherwise.

We believe that the riots in the UK were a purely negative reaction to
the apparently hopeless situation young people find themselves in.
They show how dangerous the government policy of cutting welfare and
cutting jobs has been for the social fabric of the country.

We welcome the initiatives of Youth Fight for Jobs such as the Jarrow
crusade in 2011. We support this approach as a way of getting a
positive message to the young unemployed and to school pupils that
there is an alternative to demoralisation and an alternative to the
political system which has failed them so badly.