BFI National Archive

The Youth Opportunities Programme or YOP came in under Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan in 1978 and was extended in 1980 by Conservative Margaret Thatcher before being replaced by the Youth Training Scheme or YTS. The programme came in for ridicule socially for allowing employers to exploit school leavers and politically for forcing young people into low-paid training thereby cutting unemployment benefit but failing to curb a rise in youth unemployment. Employers, colleges and Council youth services teamed up with local newspapers, job centres and specialist television programmes to offer support to young unemployed people and educational regional broadcasts include Westward Television’s Just the Job, Ulster Television’s Face the Future and Want a Job, ATV’s Job Hunt, Granada’s Lifeline and STV’s Jobs for the Boys (and girls). General Certificate of Education Ordinary level and Certificate of Secondary Education or CSE were replaced in 1988 by General Certificate of Secondary Education or GCSE but in 2017 the new GCSE system with grades of 9 down to 1 returned to measuring performance relatively against those of competing candidates.