A generation in need of our support as they hold town’s future in their hands

DAN JARVIS

IN these times of austerity, there is huge pressure on young people. This is a tough time to be growing up. Barnsley is a great place to live and raise a family. It is an exciting place to work and a good location to set up a business.

There is no shortage of talent among young people in my constituency. I see this in the Barnsley Youth Choir, which will perform a concert later this month alongside the world-famous Hungarian Aurin Choir; at Carlton Community College, where four pupils were recently awarded the prestigious Diana anti-bullying award and at Holy Trinity School where I came away inspired by the ambition of its outstanding pupils.

I know from my time in the Army that young people can and will do the most amazing things. I have seen at first-hand young people demonstrating outstanding courage, professionalism, dedication and commitment, but the potential that young people possess must be encouraged, cultivated and celebrated.

Developing young people’s potential ensures not only that every individual feels valued in society, but that the UK has a bright future. My concern is that the Government run the risk of letting this wealth of potential fall by the wayside by failing to put policies in place that protect young people from the worst effects of the economic crisis.

Instead, children and their parents face real financial challenges, at an already difficult time. In 2011, the Prime Minister assured the House of Commons that “the money for Sure Start is there, so centres do not have to close”. However, the budget has been cut by a third, and there are now 400 fewer centres nationally compared with May 2011. In my constituency there has been a cut of £6.9m since 2010. The Prime Minister also promised “a major step forward” on child care in the recent Budget. In reality, many families are set to lose up to £1,560-a year, at a time when wages are stagnating.

Recently I visited Darton College, a brand new Building Schools for the Future school, like all the secondary schools in Barnsley. There I met some hugely talented students who were researching the impact of child poverty.

Twenty-two per cent of children in Barnsley Central live in poverty – a completely unacceptable figure in this day and age – so children and their parents need all the support we can give them.

Everyone deserves the best possible start in life, and equal access to a high-quality education should provide this.

Young people have a range of options when they reach further education, from the study of A-levels and BTECs to apprenticeships and other vocational courses, but the Government is making it harder for young people to access further and higher education.

The decisions to abandon the education maintenance allowance, treble tuition fees and remove the Barnsley-inspired Future Jobs Fund have delivered a triple whammy for young people in Barnsley Central hoping to get on the career ladder. Consequently, the number of young people in my constituency in further education is falling. In 2011-12, 8,600 young people from Barnsley Central started a further education course of one kind or another. This was 400 fewer than in 2010-11 and 1,400 fewer than in 2009-10.

Proposed reforms to the way in which A-levels are studied also threaten the prospects of some of our young people. The restructuring of exams to make assessment linear rather than modular is likely to affect the provision of education and skills needed by young people.

I believe we must encourage children to develop skills in school that will enable them to adapt and respond to situations and opportunities they will face in life, not simply to regurgitate remembered facts for an exam.

Surely we should be equipping our young people with a more rounded and flexible education, which will better prepare them for the modern work place, rather than resorting to the old “exam conveyor belt” system in an attempt to boost league tables?

This is a tough time to be growing up. There are genuine concerns about the need to ensure that young people secure the right education, training, apprenticeships and academic opportunities.

My concern is that we are running the risk that the talents of thousands of our young people will go to waste. That is why we must talk up the importance of raising aspirations among young people.

After all, they are the future of the country.

MATTHEW HANCOCK

AS Dan Jarvis says, the beginning of life is full of hope. I strongly agree about the need for and the benefits of aspiration and about the duty that we all have to encourage and strengthen it, and to support those who need nurturing as well as challenging those who are ready to rise to the challenge.

Youth unemployment is undoubtedly a challenge throughout the country. It has been rising for far too long – its slow and sclerotic rise began in 2004 – but, thankfully, it is now falling, and in Barnsley 210 fewer people aged between 18 and 24 are unemployed than was the case a year ago.

Yes, 900 are still unemployed, but that is the lowest figure for the last five years, and the figure is falling year-on-year. While 900 young unemployed people are obviously 900 too many, make no mistake: we are focusing four-square on dealing with the problem. The youth contract has helped about 6,000 people in Barnsley, and I think that, given the youth unemployment figure of 900, the ratio is pretty good.

The 75 per cent increase in the number of apprenticeships over the last two years to more than 1,300 is very welcome. I pay tribute to Barnsley College, not only because it is an outstanding further education college, but because its success rate in apprenticeships is 96 per cent – higher than the 74 per cent national success rate. It is outstanding in terms of its Ofsted grade, but also in terms of results.

The town of Barnsley also benefits from being represented by a strong advocate, and there are areas of agreement between myself and the MP.

The first issue on which we agree is the need for more employer engagement in education. Young people need to be prepared not just for an academic future – important though that is – but for a life in work. It is crucial for social mobility that we help everyone to understand what it takes to get a good job, and to hold down a job or an apprenticeship.

I also of course agree on the need to support disabled people and people with additional learning needs in Barnsley and across the country. I agree strongly about removing funding disparities.

Our funding reforms for those aged between 16 and 19, which come into force this September, remove the system that was in place for 10 years or so, whereby funding was applied per qualification. That meant that those who took a lot of qualifications ended up getting more funding and those who did fewer qualifications got less funding. People in full-time education who were doing, say, one or two BTECS, equivalent to one or two A-levels, would be funded at about half the rate of a very bright pupil doing five A-levels. That was wrong. We have changed that so that every pupil will be funded according to the same formula, with the same basic rate, with adjustments so that those from disadvantaged backgrounds have slightly more.

I agree strongly on another aspect: the importance of data, the league tables and the need for the tables to be on a level playing field. We need to show not only exam results in an equal way for different types of provider, but the various destinations that people go to. It is about what proportion of people get an apprenticeship, what proportion of people go to university, how many get into work and how many go on to further study. We are committed to bringing that richer, more detailed destination data into the public domain.

There are some areas where we do not have a disagreement of purpose, but we do have a disagreement in terms of what the Government are doing.

I agree about the importance of early years education and of everyone getting a good start in life. Indeed, the Government are bringing in the childcare offer for two-year-olds and extending the age range for the most disadvantaged two-year-olds.

I agree about the phrase “the forgotten 50 per cent”, which we hear almost as an apology from some Labour MPs. They have not been forgotten by us. The introduction, strengthening and development of the apprenticeship proposal is vital in ensuring that everyone gets a good start.

We have made it clear that we want to see a new norm – that young people, when they leave school, go, of their own choice, either to a university or into an apprenticeship.

Our job in government is to ensure that high-quality offers for each option are available, and higher apprenticeships in particular show that, if one goes into an apprenticeship, one can progress all the way through.