DESPITE record breaking results at GCSE and A-level last week it is anticipated that an increase in NEETs will emerge across the country.NEETs, young people not in employment, education or training, are always considered to be at risk of falling into crime and up-and-coming hip-hop group USG know only to well about the dangers of losing focus when education ends.
The rappers, who grew up on the Stonebridge estate in neighbouring Brent, were at the Wealdstone centre on Thursday to talk with Harrow teenagers looking to take steps to forge their own futures.
Around fifteen youngsters aged between 16 and 19 were at the centre in Wealdstone High Street, where they heard how 'Koke', 'Squingy' and 'Exo' turned their lives around by concentrating on their music.
All three admit that they had brushes with the law and said teenagers need to focus and work hard if they want to succeed.
Speaking to the Observer Exo said: “Places like Stonebridge and Wealdstone have bad reputations and when young people have nothing to do they turn to crime. We all regret things that we have done in our past and it is had a massive impact on our lives.
“It has been more difficult for us to succeed because of our pasts and we could have been were we are now five years ago if we had been more focused. That is why we are here to show teens that they need to work hard to get what they want.
“When we were growing up we didn't have these kind of things so it was hard to know how to go in the right direction so we just want to help were we can.”
Connexions Harrow worked alongside the young people’s services at Harrow Council to win funding from the Youth Opportunity Fund and organise the day of workshops which included a CV writing workshop, tips on how to dress for interviews and a music production session with the USG trio.
Supna Ali, who works for Connexions Harrow, added: “The whole point of things like this is to get teenagers believing in themselves and providing them with advice on how to get into training programmes or jobs. It can be difficult to get through to NEETs but we are grateful for USG coming down to the youth centre because they can act as role models for these youngsters and give them ideas of what they can achieve.”
Some of USGs music can be heard on YouTube.
Wow. Wealdstone. I'm sorry but... not ghetto. So those fools don't need a lecture from a worse area down the road, they have no worries in their life. There are next to no murders in Harrow, it was, for a few years running, "London's safest borough" (even though it's hardly in London, yet the kids inside it want so badly to act like they're living in an inner-city hood). The kids there are either all fresh Arabs and Asians who can hardly speak English yet have rich parents so get money and cars from their families, or, as the demographics will tell you, the majority of the area is white British and Indian/Pakistani... SOLELY MIDDLE CLASS. It's a joke. Stonebridge Estate is the nearest thing to a hood in the West/North West area and it's nothing like Harrow.
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