A lost generation.

Many countries across the Euro-zone are suffering very high youth unemployment, in Berlin tomorrow there is a summit of leaders seeking to address the issue. Spain and Greece are particularly badly hit with little chance of finding a job in the near future, and they are looking to other places to find work - like coming to the UK. However we have our own problems. While only 4.7% of under 24s are unemployed who were graduates, its 19% if you left school at 16 and are unskilled. In Germany its a very different story, they have a long tradition of investing in skills for the labour market. As a consequence the youth unemployment is very low. This dedication to apprenticeship programmes has benefitted the whole of society. We in the UK have had short term goals, and have not valued sufficiently this skills base. Changing this cultural attitude will not be easy, its partly based in our class system, where working with the hands is seen as being - dirty work.