Plaid Cymru AM Lindsay Whittle has urged the Education Minister Leighton Andrews to encourage schools to make secondary pupils aware of volunteering opportunities.
Lindsay Whittle, who represents the South Wales East region, said that he felt it was important to make pupils leaving school aware of voluntary work in the UK and overseas and work experience opportunities.
He said: “The job situation for young people is extremely difficult at present. While voluntary work is no substitute for well-paid employment, it can aid young people broaden their horizons and help to eradicate social exclusion. And those that take part will find it a useful addition to their curriculum vitae when they are seeking to secure well-paid employment.”
The Education Minister responded and said that Careers Wales which had nearly 1,000 staff and worked with schools to provide independent advice to young people.
Being nothing else but a born Dissenter,I think, Lindsay Whittle should be ashamed of adopting this neo liberal idea,he`ll be setting up a tea party next. I disagree with the idea, while I have no objection to youngsters volunteering of their own free choice I think it can be the wrong career choice, and in some cases, equivalent to indentured labour. The downside is that it can be a con to get people to work for nothing, on the chance it might look good on their CV. What we need is a proper Apprenticeship system thatw as around when I was young, companies today are too mean to train the school leaver, prefrring to poach skilled employees from other firms and countries. At a graduate level the problem may be that students are taking the wrong subjects, I know of no Engineering companies that take on volunteers.