Swindon Advertiser Column: It Is Great To See Such Enthusiasm & Interest From Young People

This week schools break up for the summer holidays which is why I am hosting my annual Summer Activities Fair tomorrow at the Orbital Shopping Park from 10am till 12pm.

We have a fantastic number of organisations coming along to provide information and offers on the activities they have throughout the summer to help keep the kids occupied. These include the Swindon Libraries Summer Reading Challenge, Rockstar Climbing, Swindon Community Tennis, Junior Parkrun, the Museum of Computing and many more.

There will also be free face painting, and the Swindon Robins Speedway team will have their simulator bikes for some fantastic photo opportunities. All are welcome to come along and I look forward to seeing lots of fellow local residents there.

The school holidays also signal the start of the Parliamentary Recess, which means that MPs head back to their constituencies for the summer.

For me there isn’t much time for a break though, as my constituency diary is always packed full of meetings and visits as well as continuing to support residents through my casework.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of recess is hosting a number of work experience students from across Swindon who come to see what it’s like to be an MP and how a busy constituency office works.

I am a big believer in making sure that all of the young people who join us for a few days get the most out of their experience. This means no mundane tasks such as stapling or filing, but instead tasks that allow them to experience some of the skills that working in politics entails, as well as tasks which actually contribute to the work that I do to help represent people from across North Swindon.  This way the youngsters feel valued, learn new skills and, crucially, they enjoy every minute with many requests to be able to return in the future.

Among the activities, the young people research some of the Private Members Bills which have been put forward by other MPs, and they will research the background of each one, determining potential advantages and disadvantages of supporting each one.  It is always interesting to see how each student comes up with very different conclusions – it certainly shows there is no ‘one size fits all’ in politics!  This project pack has now been adopted by other MPs as it does give a real insight to the types of political choices we all have to make.

I also ask each of the students to look into some of the ongoing campaigns which I have been involved in, and contribute their ideas & opinions which I in turn feed in to Ministers.  This has also been applied to local campaigns, with presentations made to the Leader of the Council David Renard being popular in the past.

It is great to see so much enthusiasm and interest from these young students, whether it is when they join me on visits, in meetings, supporting real-life casework or taking part in the research work.

Over the years many have kept in touch and have gone on to begin their own careers and we are proud to have helped them on their very first steps.