Weekly programme for week commencing 14th November. Yesterday new employment results showed 9000 young people had found work in the last few months which is good news, still a high number of them remain unemployed.

Rotarian Tim Mason says ‘I remember as a young man of 15 years going to the Youth Employment Office with my Dad and the man said to me “so what are you going to do?” I said go to college and get some more O’Levels. He replied very encouragingly by saying what’s the point of that, you are obviously thick and you need to get a job!’ Hence Tim started work for a local Electricity Company as a debts clerk.

Today many young people in the UK will not even be encouraged by such a caring individual, there are no jobs out there for many of them. Youth Unemployment currently stands from June – August 2013 for those aged 16-24, at 958,000.

[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhKF7ot07jk&w=560&h=315]

Please consider this week what can Rotary do to help young people get an opportunity to be valued by our society and which will help lead into a vocational opportunity. This is not just a Government issue it is our society’s issue. Work provides young people with an opportunity to meet people outside of their normal contacts, it helps in the development of self discipline and learning to work as part of a team. It gets people understanding the need for routine in life, while enabling them to become respected for whom they are and what experience/skills they gain.

Most young people want to work and are looking for that opportunity how can we help?

Rotary does some excellent work with young people through its programmes, here though we challenge our organisation to grasp an issue that needs action in partnership with the Government and the communities in which we operate to get our young people into employment to develop their vocations.

Young people have aspirations and dreams, how can we develop these into opportunities that encourage their enterprise and enthusiasm. Can we develop the out of the box thinking that can turn their ideas into business or social enterprise operations?

Do look back and consider your first day at work and now consider how those initial days, weeks, years helped you in all you’ve achieved in life.

Tim says ‘It helped me to get up in the morning, to get to clock in on time, it taught me independent living skills, I opened my first bank account, I learned to take initiative. It encouraged me to work at night school for the required qualifications to get to college to train to be a teacher, I was lucky I had a real job and it set me on the first steps of life.’

• So can we help in thinking about solutions to bring down the youth unemployment in the UK and elsewhere in the world?
• How can Rotarians help directly with giving young people work experience, an apprenticeship or a job?
• Can we seek to encourage partnerships that help create employment?
• Should we become champions to get others thinking about solutions and how we support/facilitate development of these ideas?

[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV-DQfVhISc&w=560&h=315] Let us remember that first day at work and try to ensure everyone today has the same opportunity to experience it. Yes, Rotary can help, this is our challenge!