Summit Success! Thanks for being part of it

Dwayne Foster, TUC Campaign Group

The audience at the Summit

Sarah Middleton - CEO of the Black Country Consortium and LEP representative

(l-r) Cllr Will Duckworth, (Deputy Leader of Green Party),  Ian Austin MP (Dudley North, Labour) ,  Lee Barron, (Regional Secretary CWU)

On November 30^th a host of important speakers debated youth unemployment with a packed audience of young people at Dudley College’s newly built Evolve Theatre for the TUC Black Country Youth Unemployment Summit.  The panels of speakers included MPs Ian Austin (Dudley North), Pat McFadden (Wolverhampton South West) and John Spellar (Warley); Sarah Middleton, CEO of the Black Country Consortium and Dudley Councillors (pictured above, centre) Timothy Crumpton and Will Duckworth (also Deputy Leader of The Green Party).

To ensure that young people’s voices were promoted, the panels also included local youth forum representatives George Heeley (Dudley Youth Council Chair), Sam Shepherd (Halesowen College Students Union President), Kelly Russell (Dudley College Students Union President), Ashley Parsons (Wolverhampton Youth Council) and Dwayne Foster (TUC campaign group).

BBC Midlands Today also came along to the Summit and we were pleased to see the event featured on the evening news!

The TUC organised The Black Country Youth Unemployment Summit in partnership with Dudley Students Union to debate how to put into action three points listed in the TUC’s Charter for a Future that Works:

•          Providing Job Guarantees for young people unemployed for 6 months or more

                                                                                

•         Providing Quality Apprenticeships

•           Providing Quality Work Experience 

At the Summit, Ian Austin MP spoke about the necessity for job guarantees for long term unemployed people, Pat McFadden MP spoke about the success of his Work Experience programme run in association with Community union in Wolverhampton and John Spellar MP discussed the need for more investment into quality apprenticeships in the Black Country.

Young people on the panels and in the audience provided powerful stories about their experiences of being unable to find work or afford to improve their skills.

Ashley Parsons (Wolverhampton Youth Council) commented:

‘I have been applying for jobs in manufacturing for over a year and haven’t found anything the Government put more money into sectors like manufacturing it would be good for the economy as well as giving young people the opportunity to work which they deserve.’

Ashley Parsons speaks at the Summit

Kelly Rusell (President of Dudley College Students Union, pictured below) stated:

‘Every day I hear students’ fears for the future. During my time in office I have witnessed unprecedented and continuous attacks on students from the removal of Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) to the rise in tuition fees and threats to the Care to Learn budget.  Dudley students want EMA restored, the creation of many more apprenticeships and quality work experience with guaranteed pay for interns.’

Kelly Russell, President of Dudley Students Union speaks at the Summit

Thanks to everyone who came along and participated in the Summit - you all helped raise youth unemployment on the agenda of decision makers who have pledged to take the action by calling for Job Guarantees for long term unemployed people, more quality Apprenticeships and more quality work experience placements.
  
Thanks also to Dudley Students Union and the TUC campaign group who did a fantastic job helping to organise the event.

Help us build on the momentum of the Summit by sending this link to all your friends and contacts - we want ALL the MPs in the Black Country to pledge to take action, particularly those in Government now who did not attend the Summit and have not signed the Charter.

Black Country Consortium CEO joins 3 MPs in Summit Lineup

We are pleased to announce CEO of the Black Country Consortium SARAH MIDDLETON (pictured below) will be joining MPs Ian Austin (Dudley North, pictured below), Pat McFadden (Wolverhampton South East), John Spellar (Warley) and as Regional Secretaries from Unison, CWU and PCS among others at our Black Country Youth Unemployment Summit being held this Friday Nov 30th in Dudley.

 

Cick here for your free ticket to the Summit which offers a unique chance to  your experiences and ideas to take action on youth unemployment with such a number of important decision makers in the Black Country.

Summit Speakers Confirmed!

We are excited to announce that we have a fantastic line-up of the speakers for the Summit, including…

    

Ian Austin MP (Dudley North)

Pat McFadden MP (Wolverhampton South East)

John Spellar MP (Warley)

Will Duckworth, Deputy Leader, The Green Party

Rob Johnston, Regional Secretary, Midlands TUC

Ravi Subramanian, Regional Secretary, Unison

Cheryl Pidgeon, Regional Secretary, UCATT

Cheryl Pidgeon, Regional Secretary, UCATT 

Daniel Batchelor, President, Wolverhampton Students Union

Kelly Russell, President, Dudley College Students Union

...and many more!

Ian Austin MP Dudley North

If you would like to join them to debate how we can take action on youth unemployment – email rcrawford@tuc.org.u for your FREE PLACE.

Nov 30^th, 2-4pm, Evolve Theatre, Dudley, DY1 4AS

See you there!

We are the here and now - Join us on November 30th Dudley College for The Black Country Youth Unemployment Summit

Poster design: Ashley Parsons and Kim Hughes

We want a future that works...the Story of how a Summit was born.

Earlier this year, the TUC formed a campaign group with a group of young people from the Black Country - three of whom, Ashley, Fiona and Dwayne you can see in the video above - who were determined to take action on the youth unemployment crisis that had hit them, their friends and their community. 

THE PROBLEM

Over 1 in 10 young people in the Black Country are unemployed.

The cause is clear - the public sector is the biggest employer in the Black Country and since 2010 it has had to make millions of pounds of cuts as part of the Government's austerity agenda. Young people have particularly suffered as they have less experience than older workers and the Connexions service that provided job advice for young people has been drastically cut back.  Meanwhile many are put off studying to get new skills as the Government has put University fees up to £9000 a year and taken away EMA to support College students.

The Government's Apprenticeship policies have proved inadequate for young people.  Quite simply there aren't enough of them for young people and they are not of a high enough quality.  The House of Commons reported that the proportion of young people starting apprenticeships has dropped in the last two years, whilst it has increased by over 300% for over-40 year olds. 

The TUC reports that the amount Government will spend £98 million LESS on young people this year through its Work Programme than the was previously spent under the last Government's Youth Guarentee scheme.  It is no wonder that long-term youth unemployment is up by 23%.
In earlier analysis, the TUC reported that the Government's Youth Contract and Work Programme schemes use of private sector providers have lead to some young people being given poor quality work placements and training that are difficult to check up on.

THE CHARTER
The TUC wants to show there were postive actions that people in power could take to tackle youth unemployment.  It has launched the CHARTER FOR A FUTURE THAT WORKS which contains 5 positive actions decision makers need to take in order to tackle youth unemployment:
       1.  Job Guarantees for people unemployed for 6 months or more

  2. Quality Apprenticeships for young people

  3. Quality Work Experience  for young people

  4.Welfare reform to support young people to support young people to study and work

  5. Financial support for costs associated with jobseeking, eg. transport/printing CVs etc.

As soon as the Charter was launched, our campaign group got to work to promote it.  They encouraged local MPs to sign it - 15 Midlands MPs have agreed so far whilst other important politicians such as Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, signed.  However, 6 MPs in the Black Country have not yet signed up.  Has your MP signed? Ask them to here www.tuc.org.uk/blackcountrycharter


We launched a petition that people could sign to ask all decision makers to commit to the Charter and the group also worked hard getting signatures in Dudley town centre...

...at Freshers Fairs in Dudley and Stourbridge...

...and on the TUC march at the Conservative Party Conference.

THE SUMMIT
The campaign group and TUC decided that we needed a high profile event where young people in the Black Country could tell local decision makers directly to put the Charter into action to start tackling youth unemployment, so the BLACK COUNTRY YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT SUMMIT was born.

The TUC partnered with Dudley Students Union to organise the Summit which will take place at Dudley College's brand new Evolve Theatre.

Local MPs, regional trade union leaders, councillors and employers will be there listening to the voices of young people and describing what they can do to tackle youth unemployment....and if you want to contribute to the debate YOU should be there too.

Note down this date:

November 30th, 2-4pm, Dudley College Evolve Theatre, Dudley, DY1 1AF

Entrance to the Summit is FREE and we can also provide FREE TRAVEL , just email Rosa Crawford today with your requirements and to register: rcrawford@tuc.org.uk

Putting the Campaign against Black Country Youth Unemployment on the National Agenda: October 20th

Three members of the TUC Black Country Youth Unemployment campaign group were able to put our campaign on the national stage at the TUC's FUTURE THAT WORKS demonstration.  Fiona Myers, Dwayne Foster and Ashley Parsons from the group were all unemployed and had already been active campaigners in the group. They spent three roller-coaster weeks in the run up to the demonstration doing photo-shoots, film recording and interviews with the national press to tell their story of how they had been unable to find work for months and, in Ashley's case, over a year due to government cuts.

                                              
On the day of the march Ashley, Fiona and Dwayne were joined by Nigel Summers from our campaign group (pictured left, below) to lead the banner at the front of the march, leading 150,000 people through London to call for the government to invest in jobs and services rather than carry on with austerity policies.

Our campaign group also marched on October 20th to show the Government that young people were prepared to get active on youth unemployment that had so badly affected their areas.  Pictured L-R Above: Sophia, Dwayne, Ashley, Nigel, Fiona, Rosa and Darryll.

The best moment of the day came when the March finished in Hyde Park as we watched Ashley  (pictured left) deliver a speech from the stage demanding more investment in jobs and an end to cuts that meant he was not able to work in the police force and has been unemployed for over a year.  He said that in his home city of Wolverhampton, 1 in 7 young people are now unemployed.

Ashley's story was so powerful, it was even referenced by Ed Miliband in his speech from the same stage in Hyde Park.  Miliband said:

'I am here to join with people from all walks of life ...Young people looking for work. Like Ashley Parsons from Wolverhampton ...Let us say we stand with all the young people who want to work in Britain today.'

And a few moments later Ashley, Fiona and Dwayne came face to face with Miliband, as he asked to meet them backstage at Hyde Park...it was a proud moment as the Black Country campaign against youth unemployment reached the leader of the Opposition!

Now we will take our message back to decision makers in the Black Country at our forthcoming Youth Unemployment Summit at Dudley College on November 30th where we will be calling for investment in jobs and skills for young people.  Email Rosa at rcrawford@tuc.org.uk to book your free place.

Read the Midlands TUC report on the event here.