The strong thread of community which runs through all local newspapers is woven into the fabric of our society.

Our society is one of the reasons large numbers of immigrants want to settle in our midst and they bring many diverse skilled artisans among them - plumbers, carpenters, electricians and others.

But, at the moment, there is something wrong with our own training system and it is failing our young people, our schooleavers.

There used to be plenty of local companies, large and small, which were able to offer the vast majority of young people who qualified an apprenticeship in their chosen field.

It is not so now.

Despite a huge proliferation of seats of learning, colleges and other training establishments, the system which used to work is gone.

Why? Because there is no concerted goverment funding, locally or nationally, to allow companies to employ and train their future workforces.

This has left a huge swathe of our young people in limbo, waiting for passes to a college course to be converted into an offer of "on-thejob" training with day-release as a plumber, electrician et al - but this, after all, is what a traditional apprenticeship was.

Why have politicians, colleges, employers' federations, local and national goverment and our ubiquitous civil service allowed the whole edifice of artisan training to collapse?

The eclectic mix of surnames in this country shows how well we have absorbed immigrants through many hundreds of years. However, in only a few years time it would appear we will have no home-grown tradespersons because our training programmes are in such a parlous state.

Who is responsible for not seeing this coming?

I have a grandson who has a promise from two colleges for a "day release" apprenticeship if he can find an employer to sponsor him.

He is but one among thousands who have left school or college with a chosen job or vocation in their sights and passes in relevant aptitude tests, then hit the brick wall of constant rejection.

That our biggest local electricity company took on only 15 apprentices last term speaks volumes in itself.

What has happened to our caring, sharing community that our future craftsmen and women are being let down so badly before they even get started? We must reverse this decline immediately.

On a personal level, the offer of an electrical apprenticeship would be greatly appreciated by my grandson.

-Jack Dunkerton, Peacehaven