When I was a teen you either left school and got a job, or you went to university and embarked on a career.
I left my secondary school at 17 and was lucky to land a job as a cub reporter on The East Kilbride News.
Spool forward three decades and there is no longer any guarantee of employment, even for the brightest and best.
It’s a tough world out there for our teens and it’s made all the more difficult because of the way young people are demonised as lazy, feckless hoodies who want to spend all day in bed before going out to splurge on fags and booze. This is obviously ridiculous and deeply unfair.
Most of our kids just want the chance to do a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay.
They weren’t responsible for creating the economic crisis that has blighted their chances of a decent job.
This week, it was revealed that our teenagers believe negative stereotypes are hurting their job prospects. The survey by the think tank Demos made for interesting reading.
Our teens are fed up of being lambasted as drunken yobs who would rather be on Facebook or Twitter than out working.
I’m not surprised they are angry. Constant negativity is not easy to cope with and right now they need all the help they can get.
Of course, there is a tiny minority of young people who have no intention of ever working. But declaring these kids to be the norm is both ludicrous and insulting to the vast majority who do want to work hard and contribute to society.
I am regularly bombarded with requests for career help and advice from bright eyed, intelligent young men and women.
They are full of enthusiasm and simply want the chance to prove what they can do.
As Honorary Colonel of the Black Watch cadets I have seen youngsters blossom when given responsibility and encouragement from the adult volunteers. They just needed someone to believe in them and it pays dividends. Not all of them end up joining the army, but what they learn as cadets and the qualifications they can achieve through CVQO, the education charity for cadets, really helps them in the outside world.
It is about time we remembered that our young people are our future and they need to be encouraged rather than scorned.
Our priority needs to be proper apprenticeships, business opportunities and decent jobs for them.
It’s as much for their sakes as ours.
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