On Friday 30th October, over 300 young people from across the country will bcome the first people in 300 years (other than MPs) to debated in the Commons chambers.

Sat on the historic green benches the elected 11-18 year-old Members of Youth Parliament will debate the top issues of concern to young people across the UK:

- Lowering the voting age to 16
- Youth crime and how to tackle it
- Public transport for young people
- Jobs for young people and the economy
- University fees

You can follow the debate live online on the UK youth parliament liveblog !

http://www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk/...

Some interesting research done while the National Health Service was setting up its Teen Lifecheck website looked at what the top worries are for young people -- and then checked out their info to see if it was different fro higher income families than for lower income families.

Lo and behold, young people from low income families had a much more anxious time of it , although they were let off the hook a bit as far as fitting in and peer pressure were concerned:

Worry - Low income families - High income families
Losing weight - 43% - 30%
Bullying - 41% - 21%
Drugs - 21% - 13%
Smoking - 19% - 10%
Fitting in - 32% - 40%
Peer pressure - 23% - 30%

My next step was obviously to go on over and check out the NHS Teen Lifecheck:

http://www.nhs.uk/teenlifecheck/

It's aimed at young people most at risk of damaging their future health through bad choices, and the questions have been kept very simple. Give it a go, and see what you think!

Even when I was at college, graduating from uni didn't mean that there was a job out there waiting for you. I remember how (in a university town, where most applicants had first degrees) I struggled, and that a lot of the problem was that the various schemes for helping people to find work were aimed at people without much in the way of qualifications and experience.

So it's nice to see nowadays that the government is stepping in and suggesting career paths to graduates, via a new brochure sent to all graduating students over the next couple of weeks which highlights support and services available to graduates including further study, how to set up a new business or learn about employment rights, teaching, volunteering and more.

http://graduatetalentpool.dius.gov.uk/

I'll add it to the long list of things I wish had been around when I was a young person!