Businesses need to work with youths to avoid more riots
BUSINESSES need to help young people develop skills, raise aspirations and provide greater employment opportunities if a repetition of the summer riots is to be avoided, a business education partnership has said.
John Ling, chief executive of BXL, has held up education partnership projects run by Jaguar Land Rover and Redcliffe Catering as examples of best practice.
Mr Ling said the lack of a clear strategy on how to engage disaffected youths gave the business community an opportunity to take the initiative and develop a range of skills and employment projects that would engage teenagers and prevent them getting involved in trouble.
He said the need for a region-wide charter to be put in place was crucial, while social media could be used to disseminate and secure buy-in from the various parties.
Training more business volunteers and mentors and then matching them with schools would be a good start, he said. Developing a one-stop-shop for advice and support would also be an important step, he added.
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, funding simply won’t allow that. BXL already run a website and resource base and this is soon to be expanded to support businesses and educators,” said Mr Ling.
“Education Partnership Centres, such as those seen at Jaguar Land Rover and Redcliffe Catering, also offer a great way of engaging with large numbers of young people. These onsite venues provide vocational learning and insight to more than 25,000 individuals a year and if we can get more employers on board this figure could quickly dwarf the Government’s own National Service.”
BXL is currently working with the local authority on creating a hub for all of this activity, to be based at the Birmingham Wheels youth project.
“The message is simple. The West Midlands needs to come together as one, provide the strategy and let business drive the support. Importantly, we need to do it now and not leave it till we are picking up the pieces again from the riots of 2012 and beyond,” said Mr Ling.
