FORMER RHS PUPIL ON 4TH PLINTH

Kyly Wilson (nee Mitchelmore – ‘01), of Earlsdon, Coventry, is lucky enough to have been chosen to participate in One & Other, Anthony Gormley's art project to create an astonishing living monument. Every hour, 24 hours a day, for 100 days without a break, a different person will make the empty fourth Plinth, in Trafalgar Square, their own.

The plinth is a space normally reserved for statues of Kings and Generals. However, on 9 August 2009, from 1600 until 1700, Kyly will spend her hour promoting the Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the problems young people are facing in the employment market.

The Youth Fight for Jobs campaign was founded in January 2009, in recognition of the impact that the recession will have on the lives of many young people. Since the beginning of the recession, 40 per cent of those made redundant are between 18-25 years old (according to BBC figures). According to the Prince's Trust, a young person was losing a job almost every minute over the past three months, and the situation in the West Midlands is worse than anywhere in the country, at 9.3 per cent.

Kyly said: “I can't wait to get up on that plinth and promote the campaign, even though I'm absolutely terrified! Youth Fight for Jobs means a lot to me - even though at 26 years old, I'm not exactly new to the world of employment, I have first-hand experience of what it feels like to be an apprentice on less than the minimum wage, and employers who think that you're expendable and don't take you seriously purely on the basis that you are young. I don't envy those who are leaving school, college or university at the moment to go into a market where employers are not taking on young people the way they once might.

“The government isn't doing enough to help young people into jobs at present, with their advice to go overseas or do voluntary work – that's hardly going to keep a roof over anyone's head! This Future Jobs Fund, aimed at cutting long-term unemployment amongst the young, is going to fall short of helping young people as it only stipulates that employers have to employ young people on a part-time basis for six months, which is not going to help in the long term.

“So far, the Youth Fight for Jobs campaign has managed to secure the backing of three major trade unions – RMT, PCS, and the CWU. With their help, and that of our increasing number of supporters, I am confident that we can achieve greater equality for young people in the workplace. If we all work together to give the youth a voice, anything is possible. Everyone is going to be affected by this at some point in their lives, as it is the young people of today who will be running the world tomorrow, which is why Youth Fight for Jobs uses the slogan ‘Fight for your future', because we are. No one's going to just give us what we need to survive, we need to fight, and we need to do it now.”