What is the government doing to get young people into work?
What Labour has said it will do to address the crisis of 16-24 year-olds not in education or employment
The government has unveiled a plan to get 300,000 young people into work after a report found that the number of jobless 16-24 year-olds could reach 1.25 million without action.
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Ex-Labour minister Alan Milburn told LBC that one in five young people will be out of work and not in training in five years without a change of course.
"Eighty-four per cent of them want to be in work or training," he told Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, "so there's no shortage of effort. The problem is a shortage of opportunity and, frankly, a shortage of support.
"This is six in 10 of these young people now who have never, ever had a job.”
But hours after the report, the Department for Work and Pensions announced plans for how it will bring hundreds of thousands out of NEET (not in employment, education or training) cases into the workforce.
What is the government doing to get young people into work?
The government has announced a £2.5 billion youth employment support package that will consist of:
- The creation of 300,000 new work experience and training placements in construction, health and social care and hospitality,
- These placements will be made up of work experience and Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) - government-funded programmes for jobseekers claiming benefits, offering training, experience of the workplace and a guaranteed job interview,
- By giving 16-24-year-olds more work experience, the government hopes to help the age group get past interviews and into jobs,
- There will additionally be 50,000 additional youth apprenticeships
Work and pensions minister Pat McFadden said: “The evidence is clear, give young people real work experience and the chances of them building a lasting career increase dramatically.
"That’s why we are creating 300,000 new placements, backed by some of Britain’s biggest employers, to give young people the skills, confidence and connections they need to get on.”
Speaking with Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, pensions minister Torsten Bell said young people could get a guaranteed interview with corporations including McDonalds and Gatwick Airport.
"One of the big changes we've seen over the last two decades is that many people get through their teens and actually into their early twenties having never worked,” he said. “And starting work is just a really important part of the learning process."