How old is young?

What do terms such as a youth, young person and young adult really mean? What ages would you have to fall between to be classified as one of these? And if it is based on being a particular physical age, should it be this that is used as a quantifier?

Ask a hundred people in the street these questions and I am sure you would get an absolute myriad of answers on what defines you as being young. I know some people who think being young means being in your early teens but I also know people who still see you as a young person if you are in your twenties.

I think personally that being young is about your intelligence, your experience and your maturity. I have known some very mature teenagers with a ton of life skills but on the other hand I know some people in their twenties who aren’t ready to leave home yet and have the same attitudes and maturity that you would associate with a young person.

I don’t think an age range should be put on the term young person although I would like to see some unified clarification on the term. I think that people should be treated as an individual and not be forced in to a new stage of life just because they have reached a certain age.

One organisation trying to do a lot to make sure people in their early twenties get support and aren’t just expected to fend for themselves at 16 is Catch 22 and they currently have a “Ready or Not?” campaign that I urge you to get behind, to support it follow the link below:

www.catch-22.org.uk/ready-or-not-campaign

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Tuition Fees

This week the Government in England has announced that Universities will be able to charge students up to £9000 in tuition fees to attend their University and get a degree. This is the latest change to University costs and funding over the last twenty years or so. It just seems there is no end to the spiraling costs of attending University.

The first attack on Higher Education was when the grant system was taken away, this forces students to take out loans and overdrafts to cover their costs. This however was still affordable as the Student Loans Company gave out loans which you only paid back at a small rate when you were earning a high figure and tuition fees were relatively low.

After this we had Top-Up fees which lead to some universities increasing the cost of a degree by raising tuition fees. This added to the recent recession then made it even harder for students to afford to go to University. Now to hear that Universities will be able to charge £9000 must send shivers down the spine of any prospective student and this could only be the beginning.

Universities have evolved over the year and are now more business driven than ever with course places really turning in to supply and demand. Currently there are more people applying for University than there are places which means Universities can afford to bump their prices and can make more money than they would by opening more places and courses for everyone.

I think society and education are to blame for this current demand for University places which has lead to the rise in costs. I think money needs to be invested in showing people that there are other successful roots than University because if you did this the value of a degree would go up for people who do one and you would have less unemployed young adults with a mountain of debt to pay back.

Don’t get me wrong I am proud of my degree but only because it has helped get where I wanted to go in life. In today’s world with the spiraling cost and the decrease in value of a degree I am not sure if I would do one. I just think it is the madness that the value of something can go down but the price can go up, to me in any other business as a customer which the students are in this situation you wouldn’t buy it so I don’t know why so many people are.

You can share your thoughts by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=839


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com