Tracey Crouch

On Friday I went to meet this year’s public services students at Mid Kent College. I’ve been on a number of occasions before and always enjoy talking to the gathered 17 and 18 year olds – they are like a mini-focus group. Once they’ve asked one or two of the prepared questions they very quickly go off script and end up providing an interesting insight into the issues that they care about. This time was no different and benefits, immigration and the cost of car insurance were the issues we spent most time talking about. We had shorter but still interesting chats about tuition fees, employment opportunities, EMA and the future of Chatham but the extensive discussion on welfare reform really gave me confidence that there was a genuine understanding why change is required. I look forward to going back next term to hear what the next group think about the key matters of the day but in the meantime I am in no doubt that the excellent students I met on Friday are going on to great things.