Students need to see light amid the gloom

For the young it is a lasting scar of economic disruption, with jobs, training and investment in short supply for years.

The millions poured into island businesses over the past few months can only go so far.

Hospitality and those firms with links with the UK, either in direct trade or as part of a larger group, will fear for the worst as the second lockdown hits England from Thursday.

While the number of jobless in the island remains surprisingly low there is no doubt that many businesses are suffering, wages are suppressed and opportunities for employment are reduced.

School-leavers and students will bear the brunt of that disruption for years to come, no matter how quickly an effective vaccine is produced, treatment improves or the virus loses its lethality.

While island schools have been spared the educational chaos seen in parts of the UK, many GCSE and A-level students have endured a year from hell. Exams have been postponed, teaching moved online and, even after lockdown ended, still no one could tell them exactly what their educational future holds.

Exams are due to be held in summer 2021 but the UK’s ongoing crisis could change all that.

University students are also caught in the storm. Uncertainty lurks around every corner. Will teaching stay online? Will campus activities resume after Christmas? Will universities insist students isolate before leaving? What will end-of-year exams look like?

It is not much of a return for thousands of pounds of tuition fees, food and rent.

In such educational and job uncertainty, the island needs to embrace the spirit of #GuernseyTogether to support its students and convince them that there is a way through the gloom.

As the Education president says, the hundreds of students currently away at university are a vital part of our community. They need to be welcomed home and, once they emerge from isolation, reassured that the island will do its best to help them, come what may.