There was an inevitability about the recent flurry of announcements from the government about tackling rising NEET (not in education, employment or training) numbers.
Once the number of young people not earning or learning nears the million mark, the pressure to act becomes overwhelming.
In quick succession we’ve had the announcement of £820 million for the youth guarantee, which includes the new jobs guarantee – providing a six-month, 100 per cent subsidised work placement for eligible 18 to 21-year-olds who have been on Universal Credit for 18 months – and an ‘independent investigation’ by Alan Milburn to add to the range of ‘trailblazers’ being piloted across the country.
For many this will all sound familiar and there will be legitimate questions about what more we need to learn.
We know a lot about what works in re-engaging young people, what motivates them to learn and how to build progression pathways with employers. What we lack are the resources, capacity and long-term contracts to do it as well as we would like.
This is why I hope the latest round of reviews will not just restate the evidence base but help us understand better how to connect complementary – and crucial – parts of the system.
This needs to start at the front end with a recognition that engaging young people who have drifted away from formal learning requires investment in youth and community work, in particular if we’re going to find those young people – up to half of all NEETs – who are not engaging with the system at all.
We then need to understand how the growth and skills levy might support training among young people for whom level 3 is a distant goal, and encourage more employers, especially SMEs, to invest in workforce development.
The third aspect is to ensure alignment with wider strategies for skills, growth and investment.
If we’re going to intervene in the labour market by creating subsidised jobs then we should do that with a clear purpose, rather than merely cutting wage costs for large employers.
And if we want to attract the attention and maintain the motivation of young people who may already feel let down by the system, then we need to open up learning pathways into economic sectors that are likely to grow.
The ‘green economy’ fits the bill on both fronts. It offers learning and work opportunities in areas as diverse as energy efficiency, land management and the circular economy. It has major skills shortages in a mixed economy of large contractors, SMEs, social enterprises and charities.
According to economists, global demand for green talent is growing twice as fast as supply, leading to a risk of one in five green jobs going unfilled by 2030.
Despite the breakdown in political consensus around net-zero targets, the economy is changing rapidly and long-term plans for energy transition, home insulation and nature recovery are providing the confidence employers need to invest.
If this transition is going to be equitable, we need to ensure the ‘jobs of the future’ are accessible and attractive, creating entry-level roles in supportive workplace environments with access to training that is both tailored and transferable.
We’re pushing at an open door. Worldskills UK reports that 80 per cent of young people feel it’s important to work in an organisation tackling climate change but lack understanding of what roles are available, and what skills they require.
Compounding the issue is the narrow range of job roles available within the apprenticeship system. Few school leavers know the precise career path they want to follow, so roles with a broad skills base that provide a grounding in a core range of competences are likely to be more attractive.
Green jobs are not all about advanced skills in high-tech industries. We also need more people who can work safely outdoors, more plumbers, electricians and construction workers and more people able to embed the principles of environmental sustainability into everything from care and retail to logistics.
These are all things the skills sector knows how to deliver. We just need the government to confirm this is a priority and make it possible to align different parts of the system to achieve maximum speed and impact.
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