BLOG: Is there any hope for Sheffield's young people?

I'm beginning to wonder, taking a bird's eye view over the mix of activity happening in our city right now.
Adam BradfordAdam Bradford
Adam Bradford

The Council seems pretty quiet, jobs are being axed at numerous small firms, in factories and other larger companies like DLA Piper as announced this week.

Sit all of that against the uncertainty brought by our country's EU membership, extortionate tuition fees and the huge pressure on youth services - what hope actually is there for the next generation?

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The Star's Vibrant Sheffield features thankfully restored some faith for me this week. But this only scratches the surface. We do have a new breed of motivated, passionate young people in our city who don't get the credit or the profile they deserve. Whether it's young entrepreneurs with their fledgling enterprise launching out of SHU's The Hatchery project, or the region's focus and investment in manufacturing and innovation. The Live Lab which Grant Thornton convened in the city shows we have the brains and the passion in our city but what we're lacking is action.

A marketing campaign to help revitalise the image of Sheffield is great - us Sheffielders have got such a lot to offer and our own unique brand of that Yorkshire spirit, but we need to develop opportunities and a real journey for the next generation to make their way into the job market through traditional employment or self-employment. Let's continue the good work we're already doing and make things happen.

The council's Chief Executive John Mothersole said this week he wants to see us up there as one of the outstanding cities in the countrywithin five years. It's hard to envision this, along with his vision of more big firms coming to the city, with the patchy growth and boom and bust type of development we've seen in recent years. John also mentioned HS2 as a potential avenue for our city's growth. I'm still not sure how much the hope and promise of HS2 is shared with most people in Sheffield...

What do you think - is Sheffield leading the way or have we still got much further to go?