Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Graduation

Yesterday I went to Offsprog Two's graduation in Brighton. It was moving, once the brisk PR vids were over and the Vice Chancellor's boasting had subsided; all those families, all those young people in black mortarboards and batman cloaks, all that love and hope.
Somehow, I feel that the Vice Chancellors with all that pay and all that profile should be working a bit harder on forcing the government to notice the twenty-somethings, and do something practical for them.
If you really believe in business, get them to make a plan and give them a grand to start up, perhaps. If you need more coders, start up a postgraduate coding school and offer free lessons to those who still haven't managed to find a job in this lie of an economy a year after graduating.
Put a levy on the greedy coffee bars and pubs who exploit graduate labour in zero-hours jobs, and use it to fund studios for artists and musicians to develop, and ask those artists and musicians to run workshops for vulnerable people- elders, disabled people, homeless people, in exchange for space to work.
Set up futures think-tanks of young people to address issues like the refugee crisis, the spread of technology into the labour market and its consequences, obesity research and anything that's going to be a problem further down the line.
It would be worth the money! Get a grip, rich and smug people!
Sorry, I digress.... I was going to say how very proud I am not only of yesterday's graduating daughter Offsprog Two and her classmates, but also of Offsprog One who graduated three years ago and who is holding her head above water whilst swimming against the tide.
They are a wonderful generation. I speak both as a parent and as an educator.
What a stupid government that neglects its human capital!

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