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Young people are facing a tougher battle than ever before to find a job.

Grim statistics show a staggering 1.02million 16- to 24-year-olds are now unemployed... that's a quarter of all people that age.

Shockingly, it's the largest number of jobless youngsters since records began in 1992.

Here ANDREW DAGNELL speaks to a panel of experts from across industry, retail, education and politics who offer their advice on how we can save our country's Lost Generation.

'We like to invest in enthusiastic young talent'

By MATTEO TORRE Regional manager Ferrari North Europe

Our philosophy is to invest in young talent. And we all know this is a difficult time for youngsters to find work.

We hope our UK apprenticeship scheme can inspire other companies to invest in young people who are keen to learn and work hard.

It's open to school-leavers aged 16 and over and provides a structured programme of training, with 24 weeks at our head office during the three years of the apprenticeship.

Ferrari's aim is to ensure our dealer network has a continual supply of high-quality, knowledgeable and expertly-trained apprentices who we hope will become the Ferrari technicians of the future.

Quite simply, it is easier for us to train young people at the very beginning of their career.

Plus, they are so keen and excited to be working with a brand like ours that their youth and enthusiasm is infectious and very inspiring.

The apprentice programme is just the start of a career-long training programme for Ferrari technicians and we are delighted to welcome the 11 new apprentices we have taken on this year.

We anticipate taking on between 10 and 12 apprentices each year and we are already accepting applications for September 2012.

Visit www.ferrari-apprenticetraining.co.uk for details.

'We are facing a time bomb in this country '

By DAVID MILIBAND MP for South Shields

The disastrous youth unemployment figures out this week mean there are now a million reasons for politicians to stop passing the buck and start working together to find answers.

The simple truth is that this government did not invent the problem of youth unemployment, but it has got much worse in the last year. The flatlining of our economy - 0.5 per cent growth over a year - has left young people at the bottom of the pile. And the decision to abolish the young persons' guarantee of a job if out of work for six months has been costly. More than 120,000 young people are long-term unemployed. We know the danger for them and our country: that they never fulfil their potential, scarred for life by long-term unemployment so young.

In my constituency of South Shields I've seen the impact - nearly 400 young jobless which has more than doubled since January. The government's cuts make it even harder. When growth is slow, young people - especially carers and the disabled - are left neglected. They need special help.

These are not normal times and conventional thinking won't do. That's why I'm chairing the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations' commission on youth unemployment - to come up with solutions to this time bomb facing our country.

'There's more to it than academic qualifications '

By VIC GODDARD Head of Passmores Academy and star Of C4'S Educating Essex

'These statistics prove education cannot just be about getting academic qualifications.

For too long, schools have been driven by league tables and exam results, not what is really needed for students. Now we must encourage youngsters to seize opportunities that give them the best possible future.

They shouldn't be given the impression that getting a "professional" job - like being a doctor, engineer or financier - is the only way to succeed. If better at practical things, they might have a long and fulfilling career as a plumber or electrician rather than moving from job to job. So we need to equip them with the appropriate vocational qualifications.

At Passmores Academy, we encourage students to get the best possible education for them as individuals, not just maths, English and languages.

We teach team-building, citizenship and leadership. And careers counsellors teach them how to write CVs and conduct themselves in interviews. On top of that, we try to teach them the best way to approach the job market.

When I started out, no one told me any of this stuff. But it's vital if this generation of young people is going to succeed in these difficult times.

'With the right support we can turn this round'

By MARTINA MILBURN Prince's Trust chief executive

We meet young people every week who believe they'll never get a job.

The number of young people out of work is now the equivalent of the population of Birmingham - the second biggest city in the UK.

But there are still jobs out there for young people with the skills, motivation and resilience to chase every opportunity.

It is up to us to equip them with the skills and confidence to fill the jobs that are available - and ensure that those who are currently unemployed do not become unemployable.

This is the key to preventing the so-called "lost generation".

I have witnessed how giving a young person a job can change their life.

I have met inspiring young people who have struggled with unemployment before finding pride in a job.

We know that, with the right support, we can turn the youth unemployment figures around - giving our young people a lifeline and boosting our economy.

At the Trust we work with employers, individuals and government to support 50,000 young people a year.

More than three in four of those move into work, education or training.

'Terrible waste of kids' energy and ambition'

Paul Callanan National organiser, Youth Fight for Jobs

So we have finally passed the million mark. It was expected, but it's a horrifying figure all the same. A terrible waste of young people, their energy and their ambitions.

The fact is we have three main political parties who are all rotten at the core and will never speak up for the likes of us.

When we launched our campaign in 2008, Labour were in power, youth unemployment was already threequarters of a million, and they came up with no solutions at all.

Now this Government is suggesting employment academies - it's just scratching the surface, providing a source of slave labour for bosses who have no intention of taking on young people at decent rates of pay.

We want to see a massive government scheme to create work that is socially useful - for instance in the building industry, which would ease unemployment and meet the demand for affordable housing. We want apprenticeships that guarantee a job at the end, we want tuition fees scrapped, because education is one alternative to throwing young people onto the dole. And we want to see the reopening of youth services.

The way things are, the million will only go up.

'Spells of unemployment create permanent scars '

By DAVID BLANCHFLOWER Former member of Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee

I had long feared the day when youth unemployment hit a million and, sadly, it finally arrived this week.

The ONS announced that the unemployment rate for under-25s had hit an appalling 22 per cent. To put this in context, the jobless rate for 25-to 49-year-olds is only 6.5 per cent.

Most worrying of all is the fact a quarter of a million youngsters have been unemployed for at least 12 months. We know that young people who experience long spells of unemployment are more likely to be jobless later in life, earn lower wages and be less happy. Spells of unemployment when people are young create permanent scars.

Rather than getting the unemployment statistics down the government needs to set about getting unemployment down.

Then the coalition tried to blame the crisis on the eurozone, which is a bit of a stretch given that most of Europe is doing better than the UK and the deterioration in the economy and the labour market pre-dates those troubles.

Slasher Osborne's Plan A has failed and the young are the ones taking it on the chin.

I support the CBI's call to cut National Insurance for newlyhired young people. But I'd go further and cut NI contributions to zero for two years. This would lower youngsters' relative price and make them more attractive to employers - and help to get the economy going again.

'Fewer places mean you have to be smarter'

By JAMES CAAN Former Dragons' Den star & entrepreneur

This is a very alarming number of young people out of work... not just for Britain, but for our economy and businesses generally.

Young people are the future of our long-term workforce. Anything that can be done by the private or public sector to sort this out, now is the time for action.

While employment figures are down, young people need to take action because you can't just sit and wait for something to come along. Being an entrepreneur is all about getting out there and doing it for yourself. It is much better to apply for 50 jobs having researched the company and what the job entails than it is to put yourself forward for 500 jobs. There are fewer jobs, so that means that young people have got to be better than ever.

I had no qualifications or experience so starting out was a nightmare for me. I had very little to offer other than the fact I could work hard and for long hours. I was just looking for a break.

Getting a job the conventional way is very difficult.

My advice would be to look to start a business using online media. The online industry has exploded - there are so many opportunities.

'Give youth a chance to build a strong future'

By RICHARD BRASHER Tesco UK chief executive

Young people are asking employers: what are you doing to help? 'I can well remember how hard it was to get a job when I started out in the downturn of the early Eighties.

But it's even tougher now.

With 70,000 colleagues under 25, we're probably Britain's biggest employer of young people. And we're still recruiting in tough times, creating 7,000 jobs over the coming year and 3,000 apprenticeship places.

It's hard to get a job but even harder if you don't have the qualifications or have never worked. We're breaking down these barriers. We recruit on attitude not qualifications. And we give a guarantee - complete the training and you've got a job with us.

But it's difficult looking for a job even if you've got qualifications. This year we've recruited more than 400 young people into our graduate scheme - more than ever before.

At Tesco it doesn't matter if you joined us with no formal qualifications. Everyone is welcome... and everyone has an opportunity to get on.

It's not good enough to say things might be better next year. To build a stronger future we have a responsibility to give young people a chance now.

'The system has 'tragically failed our youngsters'

By LORD DIGBY JONES Former director general of the CBI

One million young unemployed - how did we reach this appalling milestone?

Partly it's down to the belief that people have lots of rights and no responsibility, and so a young kid simply doesn't feel the imperative to skill up and learn, as previous generations did.

But largely they are the victims of a system that has failed them. We have failed to educate them and we have failed to train them and give them guidance.

It's a shocking fact that 48 per cent of kids who took their GCSEs this summer did not achieve even a grade C in English and maths. That means 48 per cent are functionally unemployable. They can't read, they can't count and they can't operate a computer properly.

We need radical solutions.

The government should scrap employers' NI contributions because it's a tax on job creation. And every working young person on the minimum wage should be exempt from income tax.

Meanwhile, remind teachers they are in breach of their contract if they turn out kids who are uneducated.

There are jobs out there. But employers need youngsters who can read, write and count.