THIS week's 'Youthful Vision' conference at Hereford was at times depressing to listen to and for educationalists should have been an uncomfortable experience.

Many of the youngsters who spoke had serious criticisms of the educational system. Careers advice seems to have improved little over the last 25 years.

Perhaps the problem is that many of those who have stayed to work in education are people for whom the system worked. It is asking a lot from them to understand those for whom it is not working.

The inspiring part of the conference was to listen to those who, despite their problems at school, had successfully set up their own businesses or who, sometimes after years of waste, had returned to further education and finally been able to pursue the career of their choice.

It was hard not to conclude that we were letting down too many of our young people.

They had been encouraged to continue with a traditional academic education and not given enough information about the vocational options.

Hopefully those in a position to make changes were also listening this week. The overriding message was that young people wanted us to listen to their ambitions and not put barriers in their way by saying they were unrealistic.