RESPONDING to today's Assembly Government proposals to help more young people stay in school or college, Shadow Education Minister Paul Davies AM said:

"We welcome any initiative to help young people reach their full potential.

"That said, after 12 years of Labour government thousands of youngsters in Wales are not in education, employment or training.

"The latest figures in youth unemployment reveal more alarming trends of worklessness in the economy.

"Ministers need to offer more support to young people by taking up our proposals to create hundreds of thousands of additional apprenticeships and training places to prevent a generation being cast adrift because of Gordon Brown's recession."