The UK Government aims to ensure all 18-21-year-olds get the chance to ‘earn or learn’.
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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has extended its Youth Guarantee trailblazer scheme for another year in a major step towards ensuring all 18-21-year-olds get the chance to ‘earn or learn’. New figures show some 948,000 young people are not in education, employment or training across the UK.
The additional investment of £45 million comes as part of the mission to drive up opportunity and growth across the country under the Plan for Change. The eight trailblazers across England, launched this Spring, are testing innovative ways to identify young people most at risk of falling out of education, employment or training and matching them up to local training or job opportunities.
These local schemes will pave the way ahead of the national roll-out of the Youth Guarantee.
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The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show 948,000 young people are not in education, employment or training (NEET) across the UK, something the DWP says is a ‘national crisis born of a perfect storm of disrupted learning during the pandemic, underinvestment in mental health and a lack of job and skills support’.
The proportion of young people who are NEET and who are affected by long-term or temporary sickness has also risen in recent years, with over one in four citing sickness as a barrier to participation in 2023, compared to one in 10 in 2012.
Among other things, those who are NEET are:
- 80% more likely to have special educational needs and disabilities
- Nearly twice as likely to have a health condition
- Twice as likely to have no qualifications
- More than twice as likely to be from a disadvantaged background
- More likely to have lower pay, higher unemployment and reduced life chances, along with greater mental health problems later in life
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall said: “This Government will not stand by while so many young people are not in education or training – robbing them of their potential and our country of its future.
“The extra £45 million in funding I have announced today will help us ensure that no young person will be left behind as we unlock economic growth and secure prosperity for all under our Plan for Change.”
Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson said: “The number of young people who are currently not in education, employment or training is unacceptably high, which is why we’re determined to spread opportunity into all corners of the country, through our Youth Guarantee, as part of our Plan for Change.
“The Youth Guarantee is just one of the steps we’re taking to get young people into skilled work and training, with reforms to the apprenticeship system to direct more funding to young people, cutting red tape to make it easier to start or complete an apprenticeship, and introducing foundation apprenticeships to give young people a route into careers in critical sectors.”
The new investment comes alongside the recent announcements of £88m for Youth Services and £100m to train up 40,000 young construction workers as the UK Government continues to break down barriers to opportunity under the Plan for Change.
It also marks the latest UK Government step to deliver on its plan to Get Britain Working and drive-up living standards through overhauling jobcentres, raising the National Living Wage and creating more secure jobs through the Employment Rights Bill.