FErret

9th March 2012, 12:00am

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FErret

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/ferret-162

No one likes Clegg, he doesn’t care

Poor Nick Clegg. Does anyone still love him? Just the day after his office’s director general, Chris Wormald, jumped ship to become the new permanent secretary of the Department for Education, he visited West Herts College, only to be met by a chorus of boos.

Young people are for some reason unwilling to forget that Mr Clegg had promised to abolish higher education tuition fees, only to treble them and abolish the education maintenance allowance instead. “He doesn’t care about students or support them,” said West Herts student Seamus Williams.

By now, FErret is beginning to suspect that the resentment is mutual. A BBC interview last week about his latest measure against youth unemployment contained this Freudian slip: “Every 18 to 24-year-old cunt in this country...”

FE: keeping jobseekers from a life of vice

The many benefits of FE are well known. Students live longer, earn more and feel more fulfilled as a result of their learning. But now, thanks to a hard-hitting report from the Isle of Thanet Gazette, we can add another benefit to the list: keeping young people out of the clutches of pimps.

The local paper reports that job hunters in the Kent coastal district have taken to posting their details on internet jobs boards such as Gumtree and Craigslist. Alas, one of the most popular areas of Craigslist is its casual encounters section, which enables escorts to tout their wares under the flimsy disguise of bored housewives. Er, so FErret is told.

Innocent jobseekers such as 25-year-old Michelle, who according to the Gazette hoped for a job in education, were flooded with offers from escort agencies. “I could imagine they may tempt some younger, more desperate women,” Michelle said.

Luckily, Thanet College principal Graham Razey is heading up a work and skills taskforce to improve the skills of young people, since many are under qualified for the few vacancies that exist, as well as increasing the work opportunities outside of the world’s oldest profession. FErret wishes him well in the battle to prevent Margate from becoming Sin City.

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