Ministers have thrown their support behind plans to involve children from the age of seven in a “national service” scheme aimed at helping recession-hit communities by giving young people the skills to avoid youth unemployment.

The ideas will be advanced this week by the influential Demos thinktank, which will call for a lifelong service scheme that it says would instil the values of active citizenship from primary school age onwards.

Under the plans, university students would have to complete 100 hours of compulsory civic service over three years. Those aged 18 to 24 would be entitled to means-tested grants and subsidised loans, similar to those on offer to university students, to take part in full-time service schemes to help society.

Jobseekers aged 18-24 would be able to claim jobseeker allowance while carrying out civic service as part of back-to-work training, while employers would have to allow employees to do one week’s service a year.

For children, the social action projects could take place during or outside school hours. A science class might – as part of learning about pollution and the environment – go down to a local river, measure pollution levels, undertake a clean-up, monitor pollution levels for the rest of the year and put in proposals to local government to keep the river clean.

Article source: The Guardian

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