A LEADING enterprise charity has launched a campaign to tackle youth unemployment in Newcastle and is calling on businesses for support.

The drive called Save a Lost Generation, by Young Enterprise, is challenging firms to stop worrying about the quality of the school recruits – and instead go into the classroom.

Young Enterprise wants to help bosses donate time, money and expertise to give young people the practical skills and knowledge they need to take a job and help reduce the one million 16 to 24-year-olds currently out of work.

Janet Woodhouse, Young Enterprise manager in the North East, said: “Youth unemployment is a continuing problem in Newcastle that has to be tackled now. With the Save a Lost Generation campaign, we aim to take pro-active steps towards combating this situation.

“We equip young people with the practical business skills that can only really be learnt through hands-on experience. It’s a unique programme in which students are matched up with business mentors and guided in running a real business for a year.”

Justin Turner, 30, who lives in Newcastle, went through the Young Enterprise Company Programme while at Newcastle University in 2003.

He now runs his own media company, Carrot Media, an idea which grew from the company he set up while doing Young Enterprise.

Justin said: “I would never have gone into business if I hadn’t done Young Enterprise. It gives you the basic skills and the confidence needed to propel your idea and your business forward when you enter the world of work.”

He added: “Any business employer will be looking for enterprise skills. It’s about being able to think for yourself, make good decisions and understand that a business runs on profit, and that the work you’re doing has a direct impact on that profit.”