There has been much discussion in recent years about a generation of young people at risk of not realising their full potential due to a number of factors including inadequate housing opportunities, debt and lack of decent jobs. As anyone who has been following our blog of late will know, Peterborough is very keen on bucking national trends when those trends are negative ones – for example, business remained so strong throughout the recession that The Work Foundation described us as an ‘economic powerhouse’, and city-wide organisations are currently enjoying 1,000Mbps internet connectivity that many elsewhere in the UK must surely envy. So it stands to reason that when circumstances put pressure on our kids, the movers and shakers of Peterborough will go to work on a solution for them.

The ‘Mission Possible’ Careers Festival is a significant part of this solution, but as well as being a fantastically useful day (and part of a larger operation called The Skills Service, run by Opportunity Peterborough) what events like this do is create an atmosphere city-wide in which young people feel that there is hope for their future, that investment is being made in them and their aspirations for a fulfilling work life, and in them as individuals. Work is presented as something rewarding and wholly positive, rather than a lottery for which you’ll probably have a losing ticket. The optimism engendered spreads far beyond the school gates: parents feel more confident for their children’s future; communities blossom as people feel valued and useful; and businesses flourish thanks to an influx of fresh, motivated trainees.

So, as Amber Gell might say: reach for the stars. In Peterborough, you may very well get to reach them…