Letter: Failing youth

I WRITE in relation to your article "Apprentices need to be fired-up with some real enthusiasm", (7 February).

We should be very concerned about the apprentice drop-out rate of 25 per cent. Not solely because it reflects a poor attitude by some young people to hard work but how we, as the older generation, are often failing to guide the young in the right way.

Brought up with hope, ambition and an understanding of hard work, I believe young people would want jobs.

A generation ago, youngsters were eager to get any sort of Saturday job so they could afford to buy the things they wanted. They now get them anyway.

A first job was also just that - a stepping stone to the next and the one after that. This basic understanding is lost to a huge number of young people. They want the big job straightaway and expect big salaries.

The question to ask is how we have managed to knock all motivation out of these young people at exactly the wrong time in their lives and how we can restore it. If we can't find a positive solution, we will lose out on the vitality they can bring to the workplace and risk their, and the economy's, future success.

Gerard Eadie CBE

Chairman, CR Smith

Dunfermline