Opinion: Iceland doesn't cold-shoulder the young

Nevertheless, there are still pockets of social exclusion and growing concern about levels of dropout from education, training and employment, especially among 16- to 24-year-olds. I visited one of the programmes designed and being developed to address this concern, and was impressed by its philosophy, process and practice - all very different from our own more coercive and interventionist activities.

The programme is run by a former national sporting coach. He is a warm and charismatic figure, who clearly bases his approach to challenging, alienated and sometimes hostile young people on the one he used successfully to promote athletic excellence. He cannot coerce or compel anything, he said, just nurture, encourage, explain and applaud. Set up a couple of years ago, the programme started out with a time-honoured focus on carpentry - building wooden huts and summerhouses to order. There are now about 50 places - usually 30 boys and 20 girls - and eight staff. The project is now also involved in car valeting, the recycling and repair of electrical goods, catering, packaging, and computing and printing. As well as the core staff, there are two dedicated teachers - so young people have some opportunity to re-engage with academic learning as part of their week.