Danger in fame game

Jan 17 2006 By Evening Gazette

Today's cult of celebrity, apparently, is having an impact on getting youngsters to stick in when it comes to education and training.

For one in six teenagers believes they will find success through becoming some sort of star.

And more than one in ten would leave education or training to be on TV.

But the Learning and Skills Council, the body charged with making sure youngsters are equipped with the know-how needed in today's world of work, warns that the likelihood of success through the likes of reality TV is one in 30million.

You have more chance of winning the Lottery and we all know how long those odds are.

No-one wants to stop youngsters having dreams, whether it is yearning be a pop star, film idol or famous sports person.

But the difference between today's teenagers and those of yesteryear is that these high-flying aspirations used to be tempered with some reality.

Teenagers in the past still had their feet on the ground and realised that such dreams had little chance of coming true and the only way of guaranteeing a good wage and comfortable lifestyle was to stick in and learn the skills necessary to land a decent job.

It may be a hard fact for today's teenagers to swallow but success does not often come easy and is usually only achieved by putting in a bit of hard graft but that makes it all the more satisfying, to my mind.

Ruth Bullen, of the LSC, says: "If making money is the reason a young person wants to become famous, then by staying on in education or training they can significantly increase their future earning power by gaining these essential qualifications."