Dear Mr. Kijamon,

Many thanks for your email to Nick. I apologise for the delay in replying - Nick receives a lot of correspondence and I am working through it on his behalf.

JobCentre Plus staff have been advised by the Government to promote voluntary work to their customers where it would be beneficial to them. The Government recognises the huge contribution that volunteers make to our society and wants to make it easier, not more difficult, to get involved. Cases like your own make clear the benefit that volunteering can have to individuals' careers. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank you for the work you do - Liberal Democrats have a longstanding commitment to renewable energy and it's great to hear that you are involved in helping to make a future where we are less reliant on fossil fuels a reality.

Liberal Democrats in Government are working to ensure that Scotland has a green and sustainable future. We're creating a coastal communities fund with Crown Estate profits to allow local people to invest in their areas and explore new green ideas. We're seeking reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy to support Scottish hill farmers and lead to good green practice. And through the Green Investment Bank and other initiatives we're paving the way to investment in marine technology, renewable energy and a generation of new green jobs.

On fees, the Government has made several changes which together will mean that the lowest earning 25% of graduates will pay less than they do now and only the highest earning 30% of graduates will pay back more than they borrow.

Under the Government's plans, every single graduate will pay less per week than they do now and nobody will have to pay upfront fees which, for the first time, will be extended to part-time students. Nobody will pay back anything until they are earning at least £21,000 – up from £15,000 – and there will be more generous grants for students from poorer backgrounds. In addition, the repayment threshold will increased each year in line with inflation. This also means that someone earning £25,000 will pay £7 per week, rather than £17 under the current system. Moreover, outstanding payments will be written off after 30 years.

For the first time, there will also be a link between graduates’ earnings and the contribution they make. It is wrong that, under the current system, a high earning banker pays the same as a low earning conservation worker. That is why a real rate of interest will be charged on loan repayments, but with a progressive taper. Those graduates on the highest incomes must not be able to buy themselves out of this progressive system, and the Government is consulting on a mechanism that will ensure this. Liberal Democrats in Government worked hard to ensure that the new system would be fair and protect lower earners.

The position of the Liberal Democrats on Scottish independence is that, in the event of the Scottish Government calling a referendum on the future of Scotland's place in the Union, we would campaign long and hard in favour of the retention of the Union. We believe that the countries that make up the United Kingdom are stronger together than apart, and that the Union benefits from the input of each of the countries within it. We remain committed to devolving further powers to the Scottish Parliament through the Government's Scotland Bill, led through Parliament by Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore MP. This Bill will devolve £12 billion of tax-raising powers to the Scottish Parliament and give Members of the Scottish Parliament powers over issues as wide-ranging as airgun control, landfill tax and stamp duty.

Many thanks again for your email. I hope that this reply has been useful to you.

Best wishes,

Rory Belcher

Office of Nick Clegg MP

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Dear Mr Clegg,

I am writing this email to see what steps your party could take to enable more people to have the early career success that I have had. I know how fortunate I have been to get to where I am but others might not get that opportunity.

I bought into the Lib Dem movement when I was around 17 and have voted for your party in every vote, both Scottish and UK wide elections but truth be told I have no real reason to vote for the Lib Dems over any other party, I liked the underdog and the policies matched my short term goals.

With the SNP making huge headway up here and with their love of Renewable energy they have indirectly got me a job as an Ecologist on Europe's largest wind farm. I travel over Scotland providing Ecological surveys to the companies intending to build these wind farms. I almost feel scared to praise the SNP as I fear what independence would mean for my country, I would however like to hear your take on what an independent but cooperative Scotland would mean for your party going forward?

As a fairly recent graduate I was lucky enough to graduate the year after the SNP abolished tuition fees, they extended this to cover my year and so I have benefitted from a 4 year education which cost me only £2,200 in student loans. Now I am certainly not one of these people accusing you of backpedalling, I understand that your hands were tied in the end but I do feel a huge disappointment that there won't be more Kijamon's in the pipeline as a large amount of people will have to choose their careers carefully and see what will be the most likely to be profitable for them. The conservation sector is many things and highly rewarding but as a career I know full well that it won't lead me to riches so what is there to encourage people to carry on this path?

For all the effort of clearing the deficit we are doing huge damage to the environment sector that I am not sure is being realised. I volunteered to get where I am today. I fast became depressed at the stack of rejection letters and I realised I had little hope for making it with my degree. After 18 months of holding down a standard job in a shop I decided it was now or never for my career.

I joined up with a charity called the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers and through another group called Project Scotland I received the equivalent of job seekers allowance for six months and training and support for my placement. Project Scotland is now defunct, the funding has all disappeared. It is certainly making things more difficult for people to recreate my lucky career steps as a lot of jobs expect two years of experience which is only likely to be found by volunteering, how can anyone achieve that realistically on dole money without being forced into employment elsewhere by the rules of jobseekers?

After volunteering I was offered a place as one of BTCV's apprentices on their Natural Talent scheme. I moved up to Uist in the Outer Hebrides and worked conserving the machair, one of the rarest habitats we have in the UK and in fact the world. It was a fantastic experience for me but again funding is tighter and harder to come by so it is unlikely that any others will get 18 months of living somewhere as far flung as up in the Outer Hebrides and instead will get a shorter term in a museum. Does your party have any plans to encourage more people to volunteer as a way of furthering their careers? I almost wish I had volunteered instead of go to University as the six months of volunteering I undertook was much more useful in terms of getting a career than four years of University was.

My time on Uist finished and I returned home to fill the position I am in today. I know I have had an incredibly lucky career so far, I know I was very close to giving up on the dream position I now find myself in. I just don't see what any of the major parties intend to do to make sure that there are more people able to find these places? I was very lucky to have a supportive family that enabled me to live at home while I volunteered but how could someone on dole money afford such a route? It would be impossible.

What realistically does your party offer that will help skilled people find jobs like I did? I understand that a lot of jobseekers are from poorer backgrounds and we cannot forget them but there are plenty of graduates out there who simply cannot get a foot in the door as they cannot afford to stop working, particularly this will be the case in England. I shudder to think of what state the environment sector will be in when it is only the rich that can afford to volunteer for two years to achieve a position in this sector.

Mr Clegg, I am a big fan of yours and I wish you all the best in achieving your own goals as well as the Lib Dems, I understand that you won't have the time to answer everyone but I hope you have the opportunity to have a quick glance over this email.

Yours sincerely,