Opportunity: The Need for Networks

As part of a larger article to follow, I would like to sum up why it is so important for us to support and develop opportunities for young people.

Right now, our economy in the UK is not doing well. Although we have recovered some losses from the recession, and the Coalition government have tried, we are still facing a lot of setbacks. Cuts are being made to local council services. Energy bills are rising. Wages are falling. The most talented members of our workforce are migrating or emigrating to find work abroad, and many nationals from Romania and Bulgaria among others, will soon compete for jobs on the UK market. Times are tough and the pressure is on.

As I look around, I see people getting on with their lives, and trying to enjoy what they have. Festivities are all around for Christmas, and for a while at least, people may forget their troubles. But the question still hangs in the air: what about the future?

We are all worried what is to come. With fewer jobs, lower wages, higher bills, and an endless rise in global competition, rebuilding our economy seems a hopeless situation. Where do we even start? People may ask. We don't have the funding, our expertise is challenged from abroad, our industries outsourced or downsized to cope.

And it is young people who will be hit the hardest. The next generation will be denied the opportunities for good careers, and will either move abroad, or give up altogether. We can't let this happen.

However, we are obviously not going to kick-start the economy with money alone. Funding is tight in even the best of projects, and cuts will have a knock on effect. Growing competition from Brazil, Russia, China and India, makes the building of more factories and infrastructure harder to do.

So where do we start? First things first: we need to network. Get the smartest, most successful members of each industry around the same table to discuss things, and they will set the process in motion. Guilds and Think Tanks have been used in the past, and for the 21st Century, we should take this to a digital level

If the students and Alumni of each profession were put into the same online networks, and the networks organised in the right way, this would ensure knowledge transfer in every part of the business and academic sectors. It would lead to new developments and ideas, as the students of a profession, the professionals in the field, and the retired veterans of that profession would share their knowledge. Developments would come form all points of view.  This in turn, would lead to new enterprise, and ultimately, to jobs.

Though student-Alumni networks may not seem the most effective way to face the Recession, let's remember, that it was the right combination of academic insight and business acumen during the 18th and 19th Centuries, which led to the Industrial Revolution, here in Britain. We did it once, we can do it again. Networking is the way forward. If it's who you know, not what you know, then we should build more, and effective, networks to make it happen.

For the sake of a whole generation of young people, let's do this.