Nick Clegg has pledged to deal with the “ticking time bomb” of teenagers who are not in work, school or training.

The Deputy Prime Minister announced a £126 million scheme to get 16 and 17-year-olds back into employment or education.

The initiative is part of the coalition’s Youth Contract scheme, announced last November in a bid to tackle youth unemployment.

Under the new initiative, charities and businesses will be invited to bid for contracts worth up to £2,200 to take young people on.

They will receive an initial payment up front, and more money when the youngsters show progress.

At least 55,000 16 and 17-year-olds “Neets” – not in education, employment or training – who have no GCSEs at grades C or above, are expected to benefit.

Mr Clegg said: “Sitting at home with nothing to do when you’re so young can knock the stuffing out of you for years.

“It is a tragedy for the young people involved – a ticking time bomb for the economy and our society as a whole.

“This problem isn’t new, but in the current economic climate we urgently need to step up efforts to ensure some of our most troubled teenagers have the skills, confidence and opportunities to succeed.”

This group of teenagers has been singled out because evidence suggests that unemployment early on can have a permanent effect on earning potential.

By the age of 42, someone who has been frequently unemployed as a teenager is likely to earn 12%-15% less than their peers, the Department for Education (DfE) said.

The announcement comes less than a week after the latest unemployment figures showed that the numbers of 16 to 24-year-olds not in work increased by 22,000 to 1.04 million in the three months to December.

The last Neets figures, for the third quarter of last year, showed that more than a million 16 to 24-year-olds (1,163,000) – almost one in five – were considered “Neet”.

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Clegg said: “I think it is incredibly important that, at that very vital moment in someone’s life, when they are in their teens, that they don’t lose the ambition and the hope and the optimism about working.

“Because once that is lost, all the evidence is that it has a long-term scarring effect and makes it very difficult for youngsters to move into stable employment as adults.”

PROVIDENCE — North Kingstown, La Salle, West Warwick and St. Raphael are the top four seeds for the 2012 Credit Union Boys Basketball State Championship Tournament.

No. 1 North Kingstown (16-2) and No. 2 La Salle (15-3) earned first-round byes and will not play until next week. No. 3 West Warwick (17-1) will host No. 30 Moses Brown, and No. 4 St. Raphael (14-4) will play No. 29 Narragansett in first-round games this weekend.

Remaining first-round games include No. 17 Cumberland at No. 16 Toll Gate; No. 24 Middletown at No. 9 Rogers; No. 25 Johnston at No. 8 Shea; No. 20 Smithfield at No. 13 Classical; No. 21 Barrington at No. 12 Westerly and No. 28 Central Falls at No. 5 Central.

Also, No. 18 Juanita Sanchez at No. 15 Coventry; No. 23 Exeter/West Greenwich at No. 10 Prout; No. 26 North Smithfield at No. 7 North Providence; No. 19 Cranston East at No. 14 Hope; No. 22 Tiverton at No. 11 Mount Pleasant, and No. 27 Tolman at No. 6 Bishop Hendricken.

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The intense rivalry between the University of Denver and North Dakota won’t have a chance to simmer when the teams engage in a two-game series at Magness Arena this weekend.

The Pioneers and Fighting Sioux once again are fighting for the same things — jockeying for a home-ice slot in the first round of the league playoffs and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Denver (18-10-4, 13-7-4 Western Collegiate Hockey Association) is third in the league — three points ahead of North Dakota (17-11-3, 13-10-1), which is in a three-way tie for fourth. In the national picture, the Pioneers are tied for 11th in the PairWise Rankings and the Sioux are 14th.

“These two teams mirror each other in so many ways,” DU coach George Gwozdecky said Monday. “Besides home ice for the league playoffs and everything beyond that, both teams have battled through heavy turnover, inconsistency and injuries to get to this point. It should be a great weekend of hockey.”

Each team has four regular-season games remaining. DU needs one victory and a Michigan Tech loss to clinch home-ice advantage for the first-round, best-of-three WCHA playoffs March 9-11. The

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One of the most memorable parts of school for young children are the field trips that they get to go on while attending school. Even schools for toddlers can offer a variety of different types of field trips. These field trips give the students a chance to get outside the same standard classroom setting they see every day. For teachers it’s an opportunity to try something unique and add some variety to their day as well. So, once you decide that having a field trip for toddlers, the next step is determining what type of field trip to take the little ones on.

A petting zoo is a very popular option for field trips for toddlers. The animals at a petting zoo are smaller than the ones at a typical zoo. The petting zoo is much smaller than a typical zoo as well. This is great as the ability of toddlers to walk long distance is limited, and their attention spans can be as well. The petting zoo is interacting allowing them to touch, feed and learn about the animals.

Another popular destination for toddlers on a field trip are pumpkin patches. Read more…

Carmel High School junior outside linebacker John Kenny has received scholarship offers from the University of Arizona and the University of Iowa, Greyhounds coach Kevin Wright said. Kenny had 98 tackles, including 18 tackles for a loss and six sacks, for the Class 5A state champions (14-1) last season.

LEBANON, Va. – John Battle advanced to the semifinals of the Clinch Mountain District boys tournament Tuesday night as the No. 4 Trojans knocked No. 5 Lee High out with a 39-35 opening-round win at Long Gymnasium.

“This is a real good win for us,” said John Battle coach Tim Sholes. “We got down, but these guys didn’t lose their composure. In the second half, we really played some defense.”

It was a very slow, methodical offense for the Trojans against the 2-3 zone of the Generals. It didn’t appear the strategy would work.

Derek Maiden scored the first basket of the game for John Battle. They didn’t score again the rest of the first quarter as Lee High raced out to a 12-2 lead. The Trojans were finally able to get some shots to fall in the second quarter. It was a four-point game at halftime with the Generals leading 17-13.

After playing zone throughout most of the first half, John Battle switched to a man defense in the second half and it paid big dividends. With the Genera

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