How are young people going to be affected by the Budget cuts?

Since the new coalition came in to force in UK Government I have been wondering to myself what effect it would have on young people?

With this government looking to reduce the budget deficit with an aggressive strategy on spending it is only natural that services that affect young people will be hit in some way. With the government cutting budgets for vital services like the Police I am worried for youth services.

It’s not only services for young people that are backed by government spending that we have to worry about. It is also industries that young people with talent want to get in to like media and art that will more than likely be affected to.

Yes the government need to sort out deficits and save money where they can but they also need to think of the long term and the effect it will have on today’s young people who in ten, twenty years could be running this country themselves. Not only that but what will employment rates be like? And will young people be given the chance to exceed and fulfil their potential?

I strongly advise anyone to keep to their eyes open and their ears to the ground on where cuts are going to be made and to really engage with this process.

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

Never Giving Up

After the outcry last year from the UK over the Eurovision song contest the UK came back with a bang going from a year after year of languishing at the bottom to finishing in the top five. After last year there had been cries from the UK people for the UK to withdraw from the competition due to the perceived less than impartial voting going on fearing that the UK would never get a fair chance of winning.

This year however Andrew Lloyd Webber came to the rescue helping the country to find our act and then writing the song for them. Even with all this many in the UK were still skeptical about our chances of success and still were questioning our participation. People had regularly tuned in to Eurovision to watch the UK do terribly and to listen to Terry Wogan’s commentary in the past but this year we had neither.

Looking back at our success you can start wondering if it was Andrew Lloyd Webber who got us there or if the voting has changed and if anybody could have gone up on stage and got the same votes. This we will never know but last Saturday proved a great point. The point being that no matter how aggrieved you feel about injustice in competitions the only way to change or improve the system is to stay involved in the process and not give up. Giving up is never an answer that will change things. I think the outcry from the public did make people take notice of the situation which was great but it was only that it was twinned with our continued participation which is why we got the success we did.

Andrew Lloyd Webber instead of worrying about the voting was proactive and looked at ways he could change things like with our act Jade Ewen touring the voting nations on a PR campaign. When you come up against problems you need to look at all the different ways there are to get around it and not just give up when you encounter it.

As a viewer I thought that this year was not perfect but it was closer to being a song contest that it ha ever been and it was great to see so many young and talented people representing their nations. Who knows what will happen next year? If we will see a return to the voting of the past but this year has given me great heart for the future of Eurovision. People just need to remember that votes doesn’t always equal talent, just because you may not get many votes doesn’t mean that a song or performance isn’t any good and we can’t lose sight of this.

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

Getting the right start – School selection

Over the last couple of weeks the news that has been revolving around the educational world and some of then national headlines has been the selection process of parents selecting a school for their child. According to news today one in five parents didn’t get their child in to their first choice school. Now I know every parent wants the best for their child but my parents never got the chance to select my school, I just went to my nearest school and got a quite adequate education.

When did this first come in to place that parents could choose? I am all for parents taking an active role in their child’s development but the question I have is how can someone know where a child is going to learn and develop the best? Yes you can look at schools and see which have the best facilities and which fair the best in league tables but there may be schools which have less facilities or that don’t fair so highly in league tables but are more suited for your child’s development. It may be at a school lower down the league table that there may be an inspirational teacher that gets your child enthused in a subject or they may learn more by having to make do with not the best text books or equipment.

On top of all of this there are other factors which aren’t measurable like the development of personal and social skills which happen at schools. Going to school is not just about grades it is about developing and growing as a person who is ready for the world after school. Like I have had said in previous blogs a more important and measurable league table for schools would be to compare every school on what jobs their pupils ending up going to do after they finished education.

Now I’m not judging parents here who have to place their children at schools which aren’t their nearest because their nearest is full. Remember though if you do send your child to a school further away when there are local schools available you have to factor in the lost time through travelling that may affect their ability to perform and develop as well as the affects that moving them out of their social circle and putting them in to a new one will have whether positive or negative.

If each child had to go to their nearest school it would in my opinion improve the overall standard of schools and remove elitism in education and in society. Some of the world’s greatest world changers went to some of the most so called deprived schools. A pupil shouldn’t be judged by the school that they go to but on their own abilities. It’s like with league tables parents put so much importance on looking at the league table which encompasses every student at the school when really they are and should only be worried about their child’s education not everyone else’s.

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

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com