Where's The Motivation?

Just before the wonderful and addictive 'Flash Forward' last night, I found myself watching the 'Tonight' programme titled 'Make me an Apprentice' - nothing to do with the other 'Apprentice' programme, although Alan Sugar and Ruth Badger did offer pearls of wisdom to the unemployed youth of today.

As the mother of a graduate who, having worked for free interning for the year following graduation, has now just got her first job, I hoped the programme would bring ..er, hope. Hope to the masses of young people unable to obtain paid work despite every effort. Alas, it wasn't to be. With Ruth Badger badgering some irrelevant point home to those who can't pay their rent and have interest accruing every day on their student loans, I was left cold as to how useful this programme actually was. A wasted opportunity, because even if the economic climate is destined to be in the mire for the foreseeable future, we have to keep these young people motivated. They ARE the future.
Is Alan Sugar waxing lyrical from his ivory tower (yeah, I know he hasn't always had one and I'm normally a fan) helpful? I mean how is this comment supposed to inspire?

“It’s their own determination that's going to get them a job, right. Employers are going to look at them, not necessarily for their skills that they may have but for the passion that they may express, across the counter and across the desk. It is very much down to the individual”

YADA, YADA, YADA...

For the facts remain that nowadays most employers know they can 'hire' graduates for up to a year without paying them a penny. And I do mean that. Some of them won't even pay travel/lunch expenses. How are these young people who have gained a third level education, gotten themselves into student loan debt on the strenth of potential future earnings supposed to feel? And yes, of course, it's down to the individual to sell themselves accordingly, but it's a tough world out there. Dogs are eating dogs in order to get unpaid intern roles.

Moral of the story?
I wouldn't be in my early twenties again for all the tea in China.
No. I'm a forty something writer determined to succeed in the almost impossible world that is commercial women's fiction. Dogs eating dogs come to mind again...
But I've had a previous career. The Man and I have raised a family and can pay the bills. I can watch the Tonight show with a glass of good wine in my hand. And I choose to put myself in the firing line of the competitive commercial world of publishing.

Younger people don't have that degree of choice and I hope and pray that a working life, something if they're prepared to work, they should all be entitled to, is theirs soon for the taking.