In '81/2 we were offered YTS youths. When we asked to interview them wrt particular types of jobs and for their records, I was basically told ''not allowed to pick and choose''. When I said that I wanted round pegs for round holes and that if they did well we'd take them off YTS and give them permanent jobs, the amazing response was ''not allowed, they must complete ''his/her specific YTS assignment' or they will be graded 'failed YTS - did not complete' ''....But we did it anyway, we moved 'em about until they found the right round hole - and we had ''new blood'' in the meat factory
and the funeral dept
as well as the shops and stores. The way round the interview was any obvious burke/jerk was told they'd be in embalming and the reaction was ALWAYS - no thanks.
To the good ones that we gave a job, we said to tell them that they had stopped doing it (YTS) as they wanted something with a better future. No lies by anyone, and the good young uns as happy as us.
So for us and over a dozen youths (m+f) YTS was mutually very good. The ''odd'' thing was that the jobshop knew exactly what was going on, and pretended not to know - blooby daft.....but after all, it was that woman's govt
I know that some outfits treated YTS as slave labour, broom handles and tea makers. They should've been fined - but to create jobs for the young was way down the priority list - far, far below 'reducing unemployment figure'....sick cynical pollies.