Gordon Said:

Unemployment, enforced retraining and raising school leaving age.?

We Answered:

The Government need to start offering funded retraining options to people who want them.

My partner's story is this: he started a mechanics apprenticeship after school and served just over 18 months of it. He was then thrown out of the house by his awful mother so that she could move her boyfriend in (worst mother in the world IMHO) and with nowhere to live and no money to pay rent, had to move 250 miles away to Wales to live with a friend and her family. So he had to leave his apprenticeship. He just didn't know what else to do - he was a scared 18 year old with no money and nowhere to live.

He never got back into mechanics training. He started applying for apprenticeship places once he got down to Wales and he tried and tried but wasn't successful - there was too much competition down here and the employers wanted 17 year olds not nearly-19 year olds who'd already done half their training elsewhere. He ended up working in MaccyD's!!! Then pulling pints in a pub (where we met).

He's now 25 and ekes out a living on two minimum wage jobs to support me and our baby son until I go back to work. He works as a driver for hire firm by day and delivers pizzas at night!! He'd love to retrain, either to be a mechanic or a driving instructor or an HGV driver, get a proper skill/career and a decent wage. And guess whats funding is available?

£0.0000

Other than "Career Development Loans" which are credit checked (he has a bad credit history because his mother made him take out a £4,000 loan and buy her a car on his apprenticeship wage, needless to say he coudn't keep up the repayments) and "Train now Pay Later" packages which are also credit checked.

So he's stuck in a dead end job with no chance of getting out of it unless we win the lottery to pay for his £2,000 training fees.

The Government bleats and whines about "skills gaps" and the need to fill them but what does it do about it? Oh yes of course, it imports ready-trained workers from Poland who will do the job for £5.50 an hour. Because thats a lot cheaper than training up local lads and paying them a fair wage isn't it?

This Government is an absolute *crock*.