Little EM, what you say about plenty of charity work out there is true but you have got to eat and pay the rent and you can't do that on charity work.
We need a job with a wage.

Little EM, what you say about plenty of charity work out there is true but you have got to eat and pay the rent and you can't do that on charity work.

bring chain gans working on railroads and building roads back and the birch that would teach them not to scrounge

Work experience with a wage ,that is what young people need, never mind all this rubbish about teaching youngsters how to fill shelves, they want to be off these awful benefits and paid a wage, you work experience people make me sick, for goodness sake say like it is not cloak it in jargon, they need wage experience.

As a university lecturer, I encourage my students to participate in work experience: the only way that students can make themselves stand out from all the other students expected to get the same degree classification at the end of 3-5 years of study. Not a single one of these students is ever paid; they actively seek such positions and value the employment and life-skills which are provided. The short-sighted people who consider that work-experience candidates are being exploited are seriously missing the point. Unless an applicant shows willing, why would any employer take on a completely unknown quantity? For the fit and healthy, benefits should not be treated as a free meal-ticket until the perfect job just drops into their lap, but simply as a stop-gap during which time the claimant must do everything that they can to actively seek work - and this includes work experience. Jobs do not simply appear out of thin air; you have to work hard to get them. This is a competitive market where employers can pick and choose. Anyone who deliberately shuns any opportunity to increase their chances of employment is deluding themselves.

In reply to the experienced and luck Lowrie,you are an exception and lucky, that is what work is about luck and being in the right place at the right time or family and friends,how many of your course found work like you,work out the percentage,courses help and work experience helps but it is not a solution to youth unemployment if it worked we would not have the mass youth unemployment we have at the moment because "us" long time workers done the training courses years ago and know how useless they were in gaining work when we did it.If you come out of work you will realise you wasted your time as like "us" in the real world have to train and retain throughout our working careers not just bank on a one horse pony.

And as for the person who had the audacity to claim that 'foreigners' have 'taken all the jobs'

You are beyond misguided and prejudice
Have you ever stopped to think that the fact a person is fluent in 2 or more languages is more attractive to an employer, or the fact that the person is a BRITISH CITIZEN and has just as much of a right to be given a fair shot at applying for a position within a company as you or me. The person is the person, not where they come from.

Have you looked at Britain!
Our language is a beautiful concoction of languages from all over the world. We are a multicultural country and personally as a British citizen I am proud of that!

To the above comment Bravo!

The fact fot he matter is the job climate is near enough the same as when YTS was around. The same types of schemes are being put in place to help the problem of youth unemployment because they work!
We're doign the same thing as you did, yet people still critisize. I do agree that people who are privilaged enough to have jobs should not be claiming these schemes are 'slave labour' because it's causing controversy which is stopping people (like me) who are activly seeking work by engaging in these programs to get the most out of the work placement as they possibly can.

Until yesderday I had been on JSA for 1 year and with a training provider for 8 months on the Adult skill build programme.

I started a work placement where I completed 4 months of work experience - only pay being my JSA. Did I complain? No, is it slave labour? no!

I have now aquired a paid apprienticeship with the company lasting 1 year and very good prospects of a full time job after that.

Critics of this scheme are dilusional in thinking these types of programs aren't helping willing 'young people' apply themselves, boost confidence, gain/develop skills and wedge a foot in the door of the workplace.

if you get benefits you should do some form of voluntary work, not just young people but all who claim money from the tax payer.

In reply to new comment- if you drag immigration into issues we do not face real issues e.g no full-time jobs,forced work schemes serving the interests of tesco and co. They already do not invest in real jobs and are certainly not going to when they can get a regular supply of workers. You cannot believe in Cumbria we are suffering due to massive influx of INCOMERS.Who cooks your indian meals, where did the steel-workers, miners come from ? Wales, Asia , Scotland and Germany(circa 16th C Keswick region).