Robert Ashton has set up a social business to help young people find employment, but finds the work ethic and enthusiasm of Britain’s teenagers is lacking.

Earlier this year after considerable challenge I launched a business. It's an exciting new social business that matches and supports enterprising youngsters with ambitious small businesses.  We use an exciting enterprise apprenticeship qualification, practical business support and a dash of magic to make sure it works for all who take part.

Word is starting to spread and with help from our sponsors, we are starting to sign up businesses. In fact on one day last week, we had two businesses call us; evidence enough that we're close to tipping point.

But there's one aspect of setting up apprenticeships that continues to puzzle me. And that is the hugely self-defeating attitude of some of the youngsters who've signed up to be matched. They can be simply far too apathetic, far too uncooperative and far too quick to turn down an opportunity.

Of course not all youngsters are like this. At a recent event we had two teenage recruits speaking to a business audience about what the business meant to them. Both were engaging, enthusiastic and to be honest, rather endearing. They were what you might call 'nice kids,' inspiring confidence and certain to make a difference to the businesses they're joining.

Of course I don't know what all of the million UK 16-year-olds waiting expectantly for their GCSE results this month are like. What I do know is that when an organisation they've signed up with emails them with job opportunities, it is polite to at least open the email. A recent mailing was opened by only 60 per cent of recipients with only one youngster bothering to click through to check out one of the jobs on offer.

Another, offered an interview to work as my own apprentice, to help build my profile as a conference speaker, turned an interview down because he'd misread the brief. He thought he was going to be asked to speak at conferences. Although we tried to explain, he clearly lacks the attitude I need and I'm reluctant to risk offering him an interview elsewhere.

I'm not sure why so many bright kids predicting respectable grades can be so disinterested in their future. It feels as if they expect us to offer them the kind of interview experience a celebrity expects when invited to open a supermarket; door-to-door chauffeur, red carpet on arrival and a green room within which to knock back a can of Red Bull and check Facebook before venturing before the prospective employer.

Parents, you would assume, would be keen to see their children earning and learning; it's a better bet economically than sixth form followed by university debt. And what about the schools? They surely instill some sense of urgency? Because to delay applying a lifetime's learning is to risk becoming enmeshed in the Neet net; branded a failure before they even start their career.    

Of course it is the way of the world that as each new generation emerges those older scratch their heads in puzzlement. But right now, with job opportunities for school-leavers scarce, I question the thinking behind teenage logic.