Concord Extra Discussion Event: What needs to be done to improve the skills of our youth?

June 19, 2012 - PRLog -- Concord Extra organised a discussion event on 12 June on topic “What needs to be done to improve the skills of our youth?” This was done on Facebook platform. The discussion started before actual event day which shows the interest among our fans on such type of discussion.

Here are discussions on different ideas:

Idea #1: An idea? company’s should be encouraged to join together to do job promotion days for the young to come along and see what there companies do and how they can achieve the qualifications to get into the specific workplace if more companies encouraged mentoring programmes to help the young focus on what they could achieve in timescales it would help

Response:

Lisa Auty I think its a great idea, if you have an idea of what you want to achieve n then go n visit the place n you find its not what you want to do then at least you haven’t wasted years in college n end up doing something you hate but on the other hand if you still want to do it, it gives you experience n knowledge
12 June at 13:31 • Unlike • 1

Nicola D Seary I agree there should be more work based experience as part of the curriculum for Year 9 and upwards, small taster like sessions for says once a week for a month.


Idea #2: Kids need teachers that they look up to, teachers that have enthusiasm for the job. They also need as much "real life" experience as possible. For example work based training. Some children are not "academic" this does not and should not mean that they should be written off. Also as I am finding quiet, children that achieve well but make no "noise" and keep there heads down seem to be overlooked. Learning should be fun but not necessarily "easy". Respect seems to be a key element those todays youth are lacking-this comes from a mum of 5 children.

Lisa Auty yup, quiet people do get overlooked, esp. when there are boisterous kids in the same class, the teachers make sure the boisterous n noisy ones are the ones that get their full attention which isn’t fair at all on the quiet ones who do want to learn. i agree with work based training, my school had 2 weeks work experience, i loved it!

Nicola D Seary I did 2 weeks work experience but where we live now this has been made optional and only available if parents can arrange it themselves.

Idea #3: My son’s school does a great thing which is called skills for work its 2 periods a week and they do a little taster of all different jobs plumbing electrician painting and decorating etc they do this for 2 years I think it is a great idea.
this.

Lisa Auty yup, another great idea :)

Nicola D Seary This is exactly what I think all schools should be offering to pupils. How can a child/young adult know what they want to do with their life when they are 16? I wanted to be a Nanny, looking after children-am now a mum of 5, lol.Similar vein I suppose. As many opportunities should be made available for young adults to sample the types of skills required for the real world. Financial education is also a huge must.


Lisa says - I think more needs to be done on getting experience whilst at school as most employers wont give you a job or give you any opportunity unless you’ve had experience in a particular field, going to college doesn’t help all the time coz its just a qualification and most employers want actual work experience, just find it unfair that you cant get a job due to lack of experience but then you cant get the experience because no one gives you that chance!

Nicola D Seary I agree. I also feel there should be more FREE extra help available to ALL children that are struggling with their school work.CV's should be something taught from an early age too.

Lisa Auty yup I agree with that swell, to enable young adults to get jobs, it needs to be done quite soon after leaving school or in school so they have the motivation to carry on with it, and you get knock back after knock back n it gets to the point when you just kind of give up

Nicola D Seary Many teenagers these days seem to lack drive and inspiration, they don't want to learn or get out and work-they want a free and easy ride. I do agree that more should be done to enable the government to offer more work experience to teenagers either at school or soon after they leave. People often forget about the voluntary sector and I am aware that this is now being offered as an option by jobcentres to gain experience, however there is still a long way to go.
12 June at 13:57 • Like

Lisa Auty thing is most kids don’t want to do voluntary work once they’ve left school, there’s also the careers centre who pay you about 3 quid a week and you do a full weeks work but for a third of what everyone is getting paid, that’s what is kind of bad about it as you are doing the same as everyone else for nothing really
12 June at 13:59 • Like

Nicola D Seary but surely it’s better than kids wasting time playing on consoles etc or getting drunk or stoned. I don’t like to generalise but that is what an awful lot of lads between 18-25 do.

Nicola D Seary Inspiration to achieve something with their lives is what they need not JSA active they want JSA they should earn it by doing voluntary work-not full time necessarily but make some sort of contribution to society.

Lisa Auty yeah I do agree with that, JSA is given out too easily to people nowadays they give people who do want a hard time whereas the people who don’t want to work gets it easy, they don’t have to prove they have been looking for work, its just given out to them on a plate

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