Stephen Lloyd with Matt Hancock MP, the Minister for Skills & Unemployment

The “jobs agenda” is one of the top priorities for all Liberal Democrats; whether you’re an activist on the doorstep, someone who is concerned for the future of our young people – or indeed a parliamentarian. I happen to be all three!

In Government, our party has actively pursued policies that are enabling many people to benefit from work and to a greater extent, they are working! Almost one and a half million new private sector jobs have been created; a million new apprenticeships are getting our young people into work and Liberal Democrat policies are helping businesses grow with the £3.2 billion Regional Growth Fund.

We have seen real results from core Liberal Democrat policies. The achievement I am most proud of so far is a subject I am passionate about. In fact, it is one of the issues that drew me back to politics: the dignity afforded to us by being in a job. The scar of benefit dependence that has built up over generations, alongside the apparently intractable problem of high youth unemployment, is something I have been keen to tackle, and have worked furiously on both locally in Eastbourne and nationally in Parliament.

I was the first MP after the General Election to roll out 100 apprentices in 100 days in my constituency. We hit 181 new apprenticeships, and since then over 2,500 new apprentices have started in work. That’s more than the previous six years put together! I am absolutely certain it is why our latest unemployment figure is just 3.8%; that is, in fact, a third less than at the height of the recession. Better still, youth unemployment has dropped by 14% since last year. This is at a time when it’s been flat-lining across the UK.

It is these lessons that lead me to set up a series of evidence sessions in Westminster with Further Education colleges, employers and Job Centre Plus. We wanted to find out what was working and how we could spread the best practices to other Further Education colleges.

I chair the All Party Parliamentary Group for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, so had the apparatus to do thi,s and last week we reported our findings. I was determined this would not be a long dusty report that no-one would read. So instead, we crystallised all the three, 2 hour long evidence sessions into five best practice recommendations and we put them on pledge cards.

Our next step is to send these to every Further Education college in the country along with every MP, every peer and to the Department for Work and Pensions. I am confident that if these simple steps are taken, the unemployment rate will drop even further and many, many more people will be in a position that so many of us take for granted: having a job.

This is more than just creating pledge cards, useful as they are. This is symbolic of the Coalition’s efforts, and specifically Liberal Democrat policies, in driving our students towards a more equal and productive future. The figures back this up. Where we back and promote apprenticeships, we see a fall in employment, and those who get a job stay employed for longer.

I’m immensely proud of Eastbourne – it has rolled up its sleeves and we have managed to buck the economic trend, and we intend to keep pushing to get even more people into work. Watch this space!

* Stephen Lloyd was MP for Eastbourne and Willingdon until 2015. He was chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Religious Education. In March 2013 the Group published a report called ‘RE: the truth unmasked’ on the supply of and support for RE teachers. In June 2013 Stephen tabled an Early Day Motion on RE’s role in tackling extremism.