Young people today are braver than they believe and stronger than they seem - Christa Ackroyd

If, as I suspect, non-white groups see education as more important than white working class groups, we must ask ourselves why.

And I believe the truth is a simple one that ambition, possibilities and yes believing in a positive future is something white working class families have lost, while others see it as a way to escape the prejudice they face on a daily basis.

That is what must be now tackled. How have a certain group of young people been left with no ambition, no hope and no faith that if they put the effort in the rewards will come and with it a future worth working hard for?

If we don’t persuade them it is possible then we will continue with one million young people leaving school and doing nothing. Not because all are lazy. Some are, most are not. Not because they do not want to work, some don’t, most do.

But we must find ways to change the conversation that, for many, a life on benefits is seen as an alternative or even a better way of life which negates the benefits of effort and personal responsibility.

The truth is our young people, and many of their parents, have lost faith that work pays and with it the hope they can achieve. And who can blame them?

It is a long time since I went to school and when I did the system was far from perfect. Bradford was one of the first areas to scrap grammar schools and go completely comprehensive.

On paper the comprehensive system of mixed abilities was a good idea. In reality is was a nightmare. Huge mega schools were being built around us. As smaller schools merged teachers didn’t even know each other let alone the thousands of children they were there to teach.

And many sank in the abyss of confusion. And yet I still say a comprehensive education, a mix of abilities, ethnicity and, yes, class is the reason I like to think I am the exact opposite of being judgmental.

In other words I am not a snob and I quickly realised I was one of the lucky ones. But where I went in life was up to me.

It wasn’t what you had that counted it was what you did with it. But, and it is a big but, it was a time of opportunity for all and your own fault if you wasted it.

When I was at secondary school university was still the route to advancement taken by less than a quarter of pupils.

But it was there – and guess what it was free. Not only that but you actually were paid money to go in the form of grants for accommodation. No one ever didn’t go because they couldn’t afford it.

Over the years going to university was deemed as a necessity to get on in life, which it never was and never should have been.

Most of those who went from my school were the first generation to do so and they wore their place at uni as a badge of honour. Parents were proud. Pupils were proud. The school was proud. Ambition was high.

Moving away, growing up and getting on with life was at least financially attainable. I should say here I didn’t go.

Because I too was paid to study in the form of an indenture as a journalist at a local newspaper. But I could have done. And the end result would have been the same.

Cast my mind forward to today and imagine if the young Christa was making her career choice as of now. I was white and effectively middle class with my dad a police inspector and my mum a part time book keeper.

Of course I would have believed I could make it. Or would I? There are no apprentices for journalism on the job any more.

Hundreds of media courses are on offer yet it is a shrinking market in the kind of traditional journalism which I still champion.

I detest the clickbait screaming headline or worse still the social media kind of ‘journalism’ which is too often not journalism at all but a dangerous regurgitation of opinion presented as truth.

So would the young Christa now have seen the opportunity of chasing her dream as a possibility, a risk worth taking? Let’s face it even my English teacher told me I would never make a journalist.

Or would the prospect of thousands of pounds of debt have deterred me? Would the loss of hundreds of small newspapers at which to learn my craft have meant even if I had there would not have been a job at the end of it?

Added to that the chance of getting on the housing ladder, the cost of every day living, of travel, of heating, of petrol and a whole host of other things we are told we just have to suck up and accept.

Would all that have meant I would have decided it was too risky? I like to think not. But I don’t know.

What I do know is that my mum and dad, by no means wealthy, were not bogged down in the daily struggle of putting food on the table or a roof over our heads to take the time and the effort of being behind me every step of the way.

I know it is tough being a teacher. Over the years I have lost count of those who are in the profession who have told me that they weep at able young people who have a future and yet no one turns up to follow their progress on parent teachers evening. If that was then, I suspect it is also an issue now.

So what can we do. We are sadly, I suspect, stuck with a fee paying university system. But do we also need to be saddled with a generation who seemingly lack the courage to forge their own path? We can all play a part in the solution. Mentoring is a very middle class concept.

But it works. You don’t have to go into schools to do it. Each and every one of us meets young people in our daily lives.

And we must start engaging with them and listening to them. Or at least and at every opportunity ask them of what in their wildest dreams they would love to do with their lives. And tell them they can. Even show them how.

I haven’t always been confident in my future or even my own abilities. It was the faith others had in me, one of whom I reconnected with only this week, that made me brave. He knows who he is. And he reads this column.

We can all be part of the solution. It is not only down to governments to give our young people confidence in the future but for all of us.

If we had a can-do attitude we must show our young people that so can they. Because in the words of Winnie the Pooh, they are braver than they believe, stronger than they seem, and smarter than they could ever imagine.

We just need them to start believing that means them and not somebody else.