Pages tagged "young people"

On Saturday, Lucy went to the opening of Hulme's brand new library.

The Library's based in Moss Side Leisure Centre on Hulme High Street and Lucy was joined at the opening by Hulme councillor, Nigel Murphy, and Cllr Rosa Battle, the Executive member for Culture and Leisure.

Lucy said:

"I'm really pleased to have been able to open the library. It's a great new facility for the community and it was brilliant to see so many local people turn up for the opening today."

This month I met with Mancehster students to discuss Labour's plans to reduce tuition fees to £6,000. To find out more, you can read my article from February 27th, here.

In the run-up to this year’s election, Lucy will be out speaking to voters across the constituency, and this week she’s announced two dates for hustings she’ll be attending.

Here are some details for two hustings events taking place this month:

Last week Lucy launched an exciting new project to support young unemployed people into work. The project is being run in partnership with Communitas, the learning & development arm of Community trade union.

The launch event took place on Friday at Manchester City Football Club and the project, ‘Our Community’ is a pre-employment initiative developed to combine learning and work experience to provide young people with the tools they need to access the jobs market.

It was great to visit Bridge College in Openshaw last week to meet with the student council.

Bridge College is a specialist college for students up to the age of 25 with learning difficulties, disabilities and autism, and it was really interesting to talk to the staff and students about the college and what is on offer there. I was really impressed by the wide range of facilities at the college, which has its own hydrotherapy pool and sensory rooms. The support offered to the students is fantastic and I’m really pleased to have such a wonderful college in my constituency.

Today Ed Miliband has pledged that, if elected in May, a Labour government will reduce tuition fees by £3,000, beginning in 2016.

Young people in Manchester Central have been betrayed by the Tory and Lib Dem government. From the closing of sure start centres and the trebling of tuition fees through to declining training opportunities and rising housing costs. No generation has been dealt as bad a hand by their government as young people today.

Today the average graduate in Manchester is leaving university with more than £44,000 of debt. That’s far more than the average income in the country. Three quarters of young people won’t be able to pay off that debt even as they head towards retirement.

Lucy said:

“Manchester Central has one of the highest student populations in the country, thousands of young people who have been failed by this current government. That’s why I’m proud that Labour have committed to reducing tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000 from 2016 and ensuring young people have the best possible start to their adult lives. We all want our children and young people to succeed in the future. Under this government, they are being badly let down but this won’t happen under Labour. We will ensure that the next generation isn’t left behind. ”

Today is National Voter Registration Day and this year is more important than ever as the Government’s changes to electoral registration have left thousands of Lucy’s constituents without their democratic rights and damaged our democracy.

Analysis of the new electoral register shows that 12,795 people across Manchester have fallen off the register over the past year and without drastic action, thousands more could fall off in the coming years.

Of the five Manchester constituencies, Lucy’s constituency of Manchester Central is most affected, with 5,522 voters falling off the register in the last 12 months.

This week Lucy sat on a panel held in Parliament to look at the Costs of Going to School. This inquiry is being run the by the Children's Society Children’s Commission on Poverty.
Lucy met with a group of young commissioners, witnesses and adult panellists to develop a clearer picture on how poverty affects children in school, what support is provided to children in these positions and what the possible solutions are.

Lucy Powell met with local employer sugden sports centre and ex-trainee apprentice James Irwin to congratulate James on his fantastic achievement.

James with the help of a government funded traineeship made the leap from unemployment to an aspiring fitness instructor. James is now empoloyed by Serco Leisure.

Lucy has furthered her commitment to tackling youth unemployment by joining the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Youth Unemployment.

This APPG has been set up in order to tackle the issue of youth unemployment by opening up cross-party discussions on the issue.