Over the last couple of days FE Week has been following the Top2Toe charity fundraiser lead by Dave ‘Blind Dave’ Heeley and South Birmingham College Principal Mike Hopkins.

Mike and Dave are currently riding on a tandem bicycle as part of a gruelling 10 day charity ride, completing a total of 1,000 miles from John O’Groats to Land’s End.

‘Blind Dave’ is hoping to raise £100,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support by completing a marathon each morning before continuing on the tandem with Mike.

FE Week watched the pair arrive in Birmingham on Monday evening to widespread cheer and applause. The tandem, joined by a number of other cyclists, were greeted in front of the Birmingham Town Hall by a variety of well wishers, journalists and members of the support team.

We had the chance to interview Mike Hopkins and Dave Heeley during the mayoral reception held in the Town Hall later that evening. The lively pair spared a moment from the celebrations in order to speak to us about their progress and how they had been coping so far. The video interview can be seen in the YouTube player below (also available in HD) and identifies how close they are to reaching the £100,000 fundraising target.

Mike, Dave and rest of the team regrouped the following morning (Tuesday) at 5:30am in front of the Town Hall. Among the supporters and fellow fundraisers were six members of staff from South Birmingham College, who were planning to run the marathon and raise additional money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

FE Week was able to interview some of these individuals and follow the marathon as it moved out of the city. We travelled with the group via bicycle, documenting the experiences of the runners and cyclists throughout the day. This included a moving interview with Mike Hopkins and an interview with Ben Hawkins, a media production student from South Birmingham College.

We left the group during a quick pitstop on the motorway. Our video report can be seen below (also available in HD), including exclusive photographs shot during the early morning preparation.

The challenge is taking place between 10-19 August and you can continue to follow Mike and Dave’s progress via these links:

www.blinddaveheeley.co.uk/top2toe/
www.principalmiketop2toe.blogspot.com
www.flickr.com/photos/blind_dave_100
www.youtube.com/user/blinddave100

The latest government statistics show that youth unemployment has changed very little in the last three months.

The Labour market statistics, released today, announced that the unemployment rate for 16 to 24 year olds was up to 20.2% of the population in the three months leading to June 2011 – a small increase of 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter.

There were also 949,000 unemployed 16 to 24 year olds in this period, an increase of 15,000 from the three months to March 2011.

A closer look at the statistical bulletin shows that there was a small improvement for young people aged between 16 and 17.

Young people unemployed at this age decreased by 5,000 in the quarter to reach 206,000.

Elsewhere though, the number of unemployed 18 to 24 year olds rose by 20,000 in the quarter to reach 744,000.

The statistical bulletin emphasises that young people in full-time education are counted as unemployed if they are available to work and looking for a job.

When these are excluded however, the statistics show that there were 671,000 unemployed 16 to 24 year olds in the three months to June 2011, an increase of 25,000 from the three months to March 2011.

The number of 16 to 24 year olds not in full-time education was 18.8%, up 0.5 percentage points from the three months to March 2011.

Elsewhere the Labour market statistical bulletin announced that unemployment had hit 7.9% of the economically active population, an increase of 0.1% on the previous quarter.

The total number of unemployed people increased by 38,000 to reach 2.49 million, the largest quarterly increase since the three months to June 2009.

This has lead to 1.56 million people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) in July 2011, up 37,100 on June.