Highest unemployment ever for the young

Well, here I am, sat in the back garden, knotted handkerchief on my head, working on the laptop.

For the young ones that read this, you may not have herd of a handkerchief. Its a recyclable version of a tissue!! Usually made out of cotton.


My morning ritual always starts off the same, come down into the kitchen, put water in the kettle, switch on the TV to listen to the news, and decide about breakfast.


What was the first thing I heard on the news this morning?  Unemployment amongst the young is the highest it has ever been. From the tone of the newscasters voice, it sounded as if this was a surprise to everyone. Especially the government! I have been turning this over in my mind all day, because to me, it does not seem to be a surprise at all. To me it is an inevitable consequence of all the policies. So, am I stupid or something? Is there something so big and so obvious that I cannot see it.?

Lets run down the line of my thinking.

1 - First the government increase womens' retirement age from 60, to 65. So all the women who would have retired, stay in work.

If they do not retire, no vacancies are created, and the people inside the organisation do not move up to fill the empty position. That leaves no vacancies at the bottom for the youngsters to fill - NOTE THIS PARAGRAPH I WILL USE IT AGAIN

2 - Second, the government make it illegal to ask an employee to retire on the grounds of age.

If they do not retire, no vacancies are created, and the people inside the organisation do not move up to fill the empty position. That leaves no vacancies at the bottom for the youngsters to fill.

3 - Third, they increase the pension eligibility age from 65 to 67. So now even if you wanted to retire at 65, you have to keep going another two years.

If they do not retire, no vacancies are created, and the people inside the organisation do not move up to fill the empty position. That leaves no vacancies at the bottom for the youngsters to fill


So am I right or am I right?

A peak into the past

I have been looking into the past of my old company, Robert Fletcher & Son, Papermakers. Over the weekend I came across a great, and unexpected website.

It seems that when the mill was being demolished an old box of documents was found in the rubble.

It contained old invoices, job application letters, even a dog licence. I had forgotten that we used to have to have one.

There is also the tragic story of Beatrice Dewhurst, a young girl that died after falling through an open trap door.

If you fancy a bit of nostalgia, take a look at The Robert Fletcher Website.

Paperwiki launched

Well today I can reveal another of the projects that have kept me so busy these last few weeks.

I guess most of us have heard of, or used Wikipedia. I think it is a fantastic resource BUT - there is just too much of it.

So, primarily for my students, I have created a mini version that I have called paperwiki. You can view it by following the link, or from my website.

I have started with just over 200 pages, but it will grow!

The idea is that it is a toned down version of Wikipedia, a bit more personal, and it does not overwhelm the reader with stuff they did not want to know. However, the pages will contain links for people that do want to go deeper.

There are essentially three section, the biggest part of the Wiki is a load of technical stuff for the students, but there is a section on the history of papermaking, and a section on mills.

The section on mills I hope will one day cover mills of the world, but I have started with UK mills. Within this section are the current 58 mills, but being the nostalgic type I have started a section on the old mills that now no longer exist.

I plan to give some of my students assessments based on their contribution to the Wiki. It will be something they can be proud of, and will benefit the whole papermaking community.

smokers help the environment!

I read to my son each night before he goes to sleep. Last month we were working our way through Enid Blytons' Famous Five books. At the moment we are reading Popular Science FYI. The book consists of - '229 curious questions answered by the world's smartest people'.  (Note how these super smart people got the possessive s punctuation wrong!  It should be worlds')

One question tonight was "does smoking contribute to global warming". The answer was no, and it may even help to reduce global warming a little!  The theory was, that the smoke particles from the cigarette, and the smoker, will reflect some of the energy from the sun and so that energy will not contribute to warming the surface of the earth.

This positive was balanced in the next question/answer where they pointed out that 4,500,000,000,000 (4.5 trillion), cigarette butts are thrown away each year. They take many years to degrade and each one puts 600 different chemicals into the soil!

Back at last

Well, I just cant believe how long it is since I wrote my last post on here. Its been a busy time

The good news is, after all my hard work I have finally been approved as an Examination Centre for the Process Awards Authority.

I can now offer papermaking courses that are accredited by either the National Skills Academy or by Ofqual

This is great for my students.

I have also been working hard on three big new projects and three potential long term training contracts. More about the training contracts  as I get to know!

One of my new projects is distance learning material, so that anyone anywhere can take my courses. I have been working with a learning delivery system called MOODLE to help me do this. MOODLE was invented in Australia.

Its a great facility, fairly easy to use once you get the hang of it, but unbelievably intricate behind the scenes for those trying to set it up. It's not really difficult, there are just soooooo many things you can use and change.

You can see the beginnings of my experiment here