Mohammed Ali: We are failing a lost generation and it is in everyone’s interest to act now

Huddersfield and Wakefield have “high” Neet levels, with Barnsley “very high” – even Leeds only managed to make the “medium” grade, whereas places in the south including Plymouth, Cambridge and Bristol had “very low” Neet problems.

More than one in three people of working age in the Bradford district are currently out of work – one of the highest proportions of any local authority in the Yorkshire and Humber region and higher than the national average.

The key issues that are essential to the health of any community are education and employment – the opportunity for the basic fundamental right to put a decent roof over a family’s head and food on the table and, ideally, to have a fulfilling and positive role in our community. For without the prospect of an education, a job, and a home, there is hopelessness.

While we are not quite back to the unemployment depths of the eighties, our region is facing a growing challenge which cannot and must not be ignored.

At QED-UK for over two decades our work has focused on alleviating poverty, disadvantage and ignorance – the unquestionable main causes of social conflict and discrimination. History and experience shows that prejudice and racism are only heightened when unemployment and economic deprivation spread.

We help ethnic minorities, who are particularly vulnerable to worklessness, we have many proven success stories over our 21 years’ of service. But times are going to be even more challenging. The victims of unemployment are not just of a particular minority, gender, class or industry.

As many of the middle classes are also facing financial problems, then those with the lowest incomes become even more vulnerable.

Our focal point has been to support those struggling with English language or literacy skills to find work. This year our Skills for Life programme, funded by Bradford council, will assist 600 people in the Bradford district to enter the job market. But at the other end of the scale, there are adults and young people with qualifications who are still unable to find work.

With youth unemployment soaring by almost 10 per cent in three months, and with every sign of more to come, Britain is at growing risk of failing a “lost generation”. We see these young people all the time and feel helpless as we cannot support them in what they really need – a job!

Opportunities and hope for our younger people are diminishing rapidly; the scrapping of the maintenance allowance to stay on at school; soaring university fees; abolition of the future jobs fund.

The recent riots were, if nothing else, an alarm call, a warning of possible things to come.

In my experience of dealing with disadvantaged youth, there can be any number of reactions to hopelessness – ranging from drug or alcohol abuse to criminal activity. Remember how you felt when you were 19. It’s an age of passion, of belief, an age susceptible to anger at perceived injustice.

Ten years ago, a combination of factors started the Bradford riots but social and economic exclusion was, and still is, the biggest driving force behind community disintegration. The National Front and Anti Nazi League helped ignite the flames; neo-fascist racism mixed with an economic recession is a dangerous thing.

But the recent riots didn’t reach Bradford and this fact is perhaps evidence of how crucial it is to continue with the work we and others do – investing in the future of the disadvantaged and the marginalised – and remembering the transformative hope that education and employment can have.

We need to act. We need to invest in creating work opportunities. But at a time when our work is ever-more needed here at QED-UK, as with the whole charitable sector, it has become increasingly hard to get financial support.

Government has expected the private sector to replace jobs lost by the public sector cuts. And yet one of the major complaints we receive from young people seeking work is that even if they have the qualifications, they get turned away because they don’t have work experience. It’s a Catch-22 with devastating consequences.

Businesses in our region need to open their doors. We need the private sector to step up with apprenticeships and work experience schemes to allow the qualified and the unqualified to get the practical job skills and experience needed. When times are tough national and personal self-preservation tend to rule.

Nevertheless, Yorkshire’s unemployed are entitled to a lot more than anger and despair. We need Government and the private sector to create and finance genuine workplace schemes: and we need them soon, the sooner the better.

Dr Mohammed Ali OBE is Chief Executive of QED-UK, a Bradford-based charity.