Britain risks creating a “lost generation” unless effective steps are taken, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) says.
It called on ministers to stop young people drifting away from the workplace, swelling the numbers of a segment of the population aged 16 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training – NEETs.
Reliability of data
There are around one million NEETs in the UK, according to inexact ONS labour market data.
Those in the know, such as Rob Smith, founder and director of KicFM, a young person’s community radio station located in Wolverhampton, say the true number could be “much higher.”
Separate data based on tax records show that jobs for young people have been hardest hit by the rising cost of employment and economic uncertainty.
BCC ask
BCC, which is a lobbying group for 50,000 small and medium-sized businesses, wants the government to spend more on mental health support for NEETs, who suffered the most during the pandemic.
They also asked for an injection of cash for further education, which has failed to deliver the promise of vocation ready students for more than a decade. They asked for more collaborative working by Whitehall departments.
The lack of joined-up thinking between the Department for Education and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which manages job centres and welfare-to-work programmes, has led to the shambles that is the current apprenticeship programme.
Ministerial support
BCC has asked ministers to ensure the pressure on social care does not eat into local authority skills budgets, so they might offer subsidies to local businesses to provide work placements for young people or to hire NEETS.
Employers should be encouraged to provide flexible working, and line managers trained to give young people more support when at risk.
DWP says it is demonstrating its commitment not to leave any young person behind through an overhaul of the job centre system and offering a guarantee of an apprenticeship, training or job support for all 18-to-21-year-olds.
Viewpoint
It is not clear how the promised ‘Youth Guarantee’ will be delivered. An overhaul of job centres based on reducing the cost of operation is unlikely to come up with an answer for young people who have become disengaged years before the promise of an apprenticeship or training.
Mike Gahir, Managing Director of Lakes Showering Spaces in Tewkesbury, responded to news about the number of NEETS by saying: “It’s a sad state of affairs, but true for sure. Employers should be given incentives to grow/recruit/train their workforces. Whereas we have a system that penalises or disincentives them. There should be more support for initiatives such as Sport 4 Life who actively mentor people from the NEET population.”
