Sir Alan Sugar’s first task as the government’s new enterprise tsar should be to help secure jobs for our newly unemployed graduates with large debts around their necks.
They are not alone as the former Bank of England policy maker David Blanchflower has warned that 1 million people under 25 will be unemployed by September.
The National Union of Students is very concerned how many of their 300,000 graduates this summer will get jobs. These are the first generation of students to pay top-up fees and will leave university with thousands of pounds of debt during an economic downturn when nearly half of all firms have admitted that they will not be offering them any jobs.
I wonder how many of them will hear those two magic words: “Your hired!”
The NUS is pushing for MPs to address the issue of student debt urgently and has come up with its own radical proposals, including ending course fees and making payments according to their future earnings.
They propose a People’s Trust for Higher Education to which graduates would make a contribution, linked to how much they earn and how many academic credits they have attained. The actual proportion of earnings donated to the trust would vary on average from 0.3 from the bottom fifth of earners to 2.5% for the top 20% of earners. Contributions would be collected for a fixed period of 20 years and graduates would not contribute anything while earning less than £15,000.
I say full marks to our students for being very responsible in proposing alternative solutions about a very worrying issue, even if it may not be perfect. At the very least, I hope their ideas are considered by government and a dialogue begins to tackle this increasingly worrying issue.
I also hope that Sir Alan can use his influence in business to sponsor/recruit our debt laden graduates.
Chickens coming home to roost – especially when this betrayed generation end up battling for jobs at the local Kentucky. The Nu Lab method of hiding true unemployment – putting young adults through perpetual studentships – had to be exposed as the deceit it is at some point.
Try getting a decent apprenticeship in the UK. They are like gold dust and so we need (or so we are told) mass immigration to make up for the skills short fall.
The goal of getting 50% of people degrees is utterly bonkers, not to say dishonest and I wouldn’t blame these kids if they utterly hated us for letting them down.
Why are you taking the appointment of S’rAlan so seriously ? It’s a gimmick. A ploy to enhance Brown’s image and the quid pro quo is that we get L’dAlan in the boardroom.
Again. When do we get the party with the very obvious manifesto which will win itself a landslide victory ?
Credit to the British people that the BNP have no real foothold. Credit to them too for turning their backs in droves on mainstream parties – because none of them seem to get it. Thankfully everyone I associate with sees it this way too.
Ellee
Siralan’s reputation is a tribute to your profession. I’m a genuine admirer of his but I don’t kid myself that he actually knows anything about how to create a business organisation which will survive him or how to create a business-friendly economy with this government in power.
Siralan is a chancer with admirable energy and persistence. He had one great idea (cheap PCs for a mass market in the UK) and went for it with all guns blazing. He succeeded. Even I bought an Amstrad 1250 and have absolutely no complaints. It did exactly what it said on the packet. With the money he made from this idea (plus the money made from a credulous public who bought Amstrad shares at the top of the market and which he bought back at the bottom) he tried a lot of other things. Apart from the takeover of Viglen – which is a supplier of ho-hum computers to the public sector (not hindered BTW by a generous donation from Siralan to the Labour Party in 2002 or thereabouts) – Siralan’s only real success has been in property: not difficult if you start out with “mad money” amounting to around £100 million.
Electro-kevin is absolutely correct: Siralan’s appointment is a gimmick which shames Siralan’s claim to any semblance of integrity – or even common sense (unless you fancy selling your integrity for a peerage). He’s a very shrewd operator. However, for the sake of a couple of day’s headlines, Gordon’s use of Siralan is also quite shrewd were it not so transparent.
personally i dont think newly unemployed graduates with large debts around their necks should get any more help than your average joe blogs leaving school…..
Kevin and Umbomgo, regardless of whether or not Sir Alan uses his role as a govt advisor or as a TV personality with brilliant business contacts on a global level, I feel he is in a position to help our young people more. Apprenticeship schemes are vital and university sponsorship too as our young people will not be able to afford uni, and will shy away from a future of huge debt with little prospect of work. But I also appreciate that if businesses are making people redundant, it may be impossible for them. There need to be stop gap solutions.
Sally, it’s pretty scary leaving uni with a £30,000 debt, that’s why they need help. And I believe that school leavers need to be equipped with skills they can take forward on their next step in life, and careers support too. I certainly worry about the future of my two sons.
aahhh but the thing is Ellee… these students decide to go to uni they are not forced too go and they should take the debt into considaration before they go.
How will Apprentices-to-be address him next year? M’Lord?
Ellee
Siralan has got as much idea about how to get more apprenticeships for young people as Postman Pat – or anyone else in the government. He is there because Gordon 1. has no idea how business works 2. thinks that a successful businessman like Siralan – whose expertise is as a trader not an industrialist – might have an idea, and 3. got some more or less favourable headlines.
It doesn’t surprise me that you worry about your sons in modern Britain. Maybe we should concentrate our resources on sending to university those who can benefit from it, not to fulfil an off-the-cuff remark about getting 50% of children into university – any old university to study any old subject. In that way we can go back to the system I (or more to the point my parents) benefited from, where all my university fees were paid by the taxpayer. But, there again, to get the taxpayer to cough up I had to sit real exams and get real grades before I was allowed to become an undergraduate.
Perhaps he should bring back the Dept for Innovation and Skills?
Well supporting wealth creating industries would help and that would mean the government looking at changing the red tape that is choking many businesses.
This is a bit rich with LDV going to the wall.
Sadly, I will not be advising either of my children to go to Uni in this country. Its simply not worth it…
I agree, Ellee. It is awful that young graduates feel there is no hope. Here the situation is even worse, in Italy as a whole and particularly in Sicily, where getting a decent job depends on the staus of your family and who you know.
I will be most interested to see how Siralan gets on. I know there’s widespread controversy over his suitability for the job…
I think the Sir Allan appointment was a shallow stunt in an area that needs serious solutions. And you know what my political affiliations are – which makes me doubly infuriated by it.
David,of course it’s a stunt. I feel sorry for him because he is being advised all the time about improving his communication skills and connecting with celebs and it just backfires, the same as when he rang the BGT judges after Susan Boyle was hospitalised. This is not his style. He is trying to ape Blair too much.
Agreed!
Electro Kevin got it in one .
By and large any one in business has had it to the back teeth with all of the mainstream parties and considers them all a waste of time and space as they are all full of the old bull and hardly a fag packet between them on anything of importance .
As for the amount of youngsters going to uni , its simply ridiculous .
There are only ever in truth a small proportion of really gifted who should be in university education , the present system is simply social engineering at its very worse .
It makes the thick kids all believe they should be going and when they come out from third rate unis with useless degrees and debts its all someone elses fault !
And because it cant be afforded they load the cost onto the same silly kids who have fallen for the hype ( plus possibly liked the idea of messing around for a few more years instead of going out and getting a proper job )
I actually have more respect and concern for the kids who have known their limitations but want to work and find theres not much available.