Unemployment in any age group is tough enough, but when the largest growth in unemployment is in the under 25’s across the EU it highlights a really dark period ahead of us. The high cost of higher education and general scarcity of both jobs and publicly-funded training options for those leaving school at 16 are proving to be a dangerous combination.

So what are these young people going to do? If nation-states are unable or unwilling to help and employers cannot give any real opportunities, where are the answers coming from? I find this question very tough to answer and think that we should all focus a bit more on this as an issue that will get bigger and bigger as the years go by.

There are organisations out there who are willing to help but their own funding lifelines have also been cut in this economy. I did some voluntary work with a project helping the homeless in London years ago but they are long gone now and ended when the money ran out. Even in the third sector it seems that there are the have’s – big cancer charities, Oxfam, etc – and the have-not’s – smaller local supporters of the underprivileged in their own communities. The big get bigger and the smaller fade into the background, fighting for survival.

Everything tends to work in cycles and the things I mention here are part of a very obvious, yet negative, one. Being aware of it is one thing, but I’d also like to know the plan for change and action of a positive nature. A generation with poor levels of education and little work experience of any value is of no use to anyone.