Labour's Lost Generation - Tackling the Challenge of Youth Unemployment

Written by Nick Clegg on Mon 28th Sep 2009

Young people looking for a job would not go more than three months without a right of access to a place in work, training, or education, under plans unveiled by Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats.

The promise forms part of a wider package aimed at getting help to young people more quickly during the recession. Other proposals include:

• Funding 10,000 more university places and 50,000 more College-based Foundation Degree places this year.

• Introducing a new "Paid Internship" scheme where young people would be able to work for up to 3 months without cost to their employer, while being paid a weekly training allowance of £55. The scheme would allow up to 200,000 young people from less well-off backgrounds to gain valuable experience to improve their skills and enhance their CVs.

• Creating a "Green Taskforce" of over 20,000 young people to improve the energy efficiency of millions of homes and public buildings in Britain and make lasting improvements to Britain's transport infrastructure.

You can access a PDF of the paper in our download area.