PEOPLE sometimes say to me "Joe, what on earth was the column about this week?"

Sometimes I try to explain, if there is an explanation. If there isn't, I'll admit that as a journalist writing for one of the country's most respected and long-established weekly newspapers, I should do better, and as a reader they should expect better, although they may not get better.

Today, however, is different. Today there's going to be a point and I'm going to get straight to that point. I had planned to discuss the youngest boy's likening of driving while on your mobile to inserting a hairdryer up your nose, but that will have to wait.

And so to the point. Our young people are being proper stiffed. I've recently had reason to examine the growing number of apprenticeships being offered to school leavers. It seems to me there's a con afoot. Instead of paying young people a proper wage, they are being encouraged to sign up to jobs paying £3 an hour, or less in some cases. Fair enough you might say if they're learning skills which will lead to a proper career earning proper money. But in some cases this is not what is on offer. Exploitation is a strong word but does fancy sandwich maker Subway really need to seek hospitality apprentices.

Day one training: "You take a bread roll, slap some marge on, a few bits of processed meat and there you have it. You might have to grill it, you might not."

Day two to 365: Work for less than half the minimum wage.

It's hardly the image of a wise craftsman or woman patiently passing on their precious skills honed over decades of practice to the next generation that the word 'apprentice' once conjured up.

Young people are only having to consider these cruddy apprenticeships because we started charging for tuition fees and took away their maintenance grants, meaning it's too expensive to go to university.

Even if they complete an apprenticeship or even come out of university with less than £40.000 of debt, they've got one of two hopes of affording a house of their own and it's not Bob. The drawbridge on opportunity has been pulled up, knocked down and then replaced with snarling dogs armed with assault rifles.