National Citizenship Service for 16-year-olds launched today

Every teenager in the country will today be invited to take part in a two-month summer residential course under plans for voluntary program of national service.

The “National Citizen Service” will bring together 16-year-olds from different backgrounds and around the country to become community volunteers and join in outdoor pursuits.

David Cameron has said that he hopes participation in the non-military, voluntary form of national service will become a “rite of passage” for all teenagers.

He was a member of the cadet force while at Eton College, and has also spoken of how much he enjoyed volunteering to help shop for local elderly people while at school. He wants the Service to become one of the “proudest legacies” of his Government.

As well as giving 16-year-olds a sense of “purpose, optimism and belonging,” Mr Cameron has said that he hopes that the scheme will promote a sense of greater community cohesion.

Teenagers would be put into mixed groups to ensure that they got to know youngsters from different social groups, ethnicities and parts of the country from their own.

When he announced the Citizen Service during the general election, Mr Cameron said: “I want to see a programme which engages young people and gives them a sense of purpose, optimism and belonging.

“Something like national service, but not military, not compulsory but universal.

“And in the same spirit, mixing up people from different backgrounds. A residential programme, so young people have time to live together, work together, play together.”

[link to www.telegraph.co.uk]