Bebo

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!

Going through the in-tray, looking for any useful bits of information -- and turned up this consultation on Young People and Alcohol Guidance:

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations...

This is looking at what sort of information parents and carers need to support their under 18 children not to become a binge-drinking statistic.

They're after young peoples' responses and you can respond online -- don't worry about any requests for registratio, you can just skip that.

I found I had a lot to say, and eventually went back and read all of the leaflets -- the ones for young people and for parents.

What do you think?

In the news this week: teenage pregnancy, and how to reduce it. At the moment, we're collecting evidence on whether making contraception more easily available helps (evidence suggests that it does -- whatever you've read in the press lately!)

When I was at school, people would just do something superstitious, or get hold of an illicit (and often very old) condom or just hope - and a lot of time, would "get away with it" -- after all, you're not certain to get pregnant if you have unprotected sex once, or a few times.

But push it up above a few times, and you certainly will; 85% certain, within a year.

So it's important that you get clued up about how to get hold of contraception before anything goes wrong, and that includes Emergency Contraception (EHC) where, literally, the sooner you take it after sex the more effective it is.

You often hear people talking about how "easy" contraception is to get hold of, but availability is still far from perfect. How would you go about getting Emergency Hormonal Contraception? Would you know how? Would you know where to go on a Saturday, or Sunday?

Get your emergency plan in place. If you're in Oxfordshire, you can find links to the Pharmacies and C&SH clinics where you can get EHC on this page -- http://www.spired.com/ehc -- including details of which ones are open late or on Sundays.

Oh, and here's a video about EHC. It's a bit weird, and from South Carolina.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAJSY...