Instead of taking back unspent cash, the DfE and Treasury should look at reallocating this underspend as a new training allowance, writes Ian Ross

It is hard to escape the media frenzy and coverage of the Conservative Party leadership contest. 

Most of us have probably thought about what the next Tory government will have in store for the FE sector. 

While politicians and ministers have short shelf lives, the imminent change in leadership gives us the opportunity to influence the FE agenda. 

Undoubtedly the next prime minister will want to differentiate their premiership after Downing Street has been rocked by months of scandals. 

One quick fix to addressing youth unemployed is to tweak traineeships.

In Wales, where skills funding is devolved to the Welsh government, young people on a traineeships programme receive a weekly training allowance, paid dependent on learner attendance. That is now part of the Jobs Growth Wales+ initiative.

For example, young people on the Jobs Growth Wales+ engagement strand receive a weekly training allowance of £35 per week.

Meanwhile those young people on the advancement strand receive £55 per week. 

It is worth highlighting that in Wales this does not affect their universal credit entitlement. 

This means those receiving universal credit who are in the intensive work search group can take advantage of more sector-specific training while still receiving financial support. This training can range from digital skills to social care and engineering.

As it currently stands, in England jobseekers can also take part full-time in the free Department for Education skills bootcamps for up to 16 weeks.

Ministers in England had hoped to achieve 43,000 starts on the traineeships scheme in 2021-22 after investing an additional £126 million through the Chancellor’s budget last year. 

This was on top of a £111 million investment to achieve 36,700 traineeships in 2020-21.

But the target was missed by more than half, with only 17,400 starts.

It resulted in the Department for Education handing £65 million of the funding back to the Treasury. 

It’s a travesty so much traineeship cash is returning to the Treasury

The Chancellor’s goal was to triple the number of starts on the pre-employment programme after 14,900 were achieved in 2019-20. 

A similar underspend is looking likely for this year as figures show just 8,900 traineeship starts in the first half of 2021-22 between August to January.

In February to April 2022, 455,000 young people aged 16-24 were unemployed. The number who are economically inactive stands at 2.61 million. 

Meanwhile 61,000 more young people have become economically inactive compared to pre-pandemic levels, an increase of two per cent.

Paying young people a training allowance in England will incentivise young people to sign up to a traineeship. 

With the cost of living crisis continuing to bite, providing a £35 to £55 per week training allowance will make traineeships more accessible for young people.

As inflation continues to rise young people who claim universal credit will find the real value of their benefits decline.

As young people spend more on essentials like rent or bills, this is a serious problem that we must solve. It’s crucial so that young people are not excluded from participating in a full-time skills programme.

And although the former chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is to be congratulated for investing in traineeships, in my opinion it is a travesty that so much of this funding is being returned to the Treasury. 

From our own experience we find that many young people think short-term and opt for whatever pays more, often opting for a minimum wage part-time job over a Traineeship. 

Part-time employment may provide short-term income. But a traineeship is a longer-term investment in their skills and qualifications, enabling learners to widen their future opportunities including moving into apprenticeships with better career prospects and pay. 

My preferred option is for the DfE and Treasury to look at reallocating this underspend as a new training allowance.

I believe this will greatly help towards achieving the government’s ambition of tripling traineeships. 

Another option is giving traineeships providers the flexibility to use their existing funding allocations to pay discretionary training allowances. 

If Conservative Party leadership candidates are serious about addressing youth employment, now is a good time to announce their position.

Roles previously considered ‘for uni graduates’ should be inundated with applications from college-leavers. Why aren’t they? asks Victoria Boelman

Covid has had an interesting impact on employment for FE leavers.

Within a few months of the virus hitting the UK, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – fearing, and seeking to fend off, a post-pandemic a wave of youth unemployment -launched the Kickstart scheme.

This was designed to create new jobs for 16- to 24-year-olds on universal credit, who were considered at risk of long-term unemployment.  

Smashing the ivory tower 

Where I work we were quick to sign up, hoping to support young people into careers in social research.

If you’re drawing a blank here, don’t worry – you’re not alone.

Asked what a career in social research might look like (or whether to recommend it to someone in further education) many don’t know what to say.

All too often, it’s seen as an opaque, ivory-tower profession, preserved for those with PhDs.

It certainly does not represent many of those whose voices it seeks to elevate. 

The truth is, social research is a vast profession that covers a range of skills, from data analysis to arts-based storytelling.

Social researchers can be found everywhere – from government to major companies that are household names, charities, and academia.

Yet, despite this breadth, it’s hard to make a social research career seem tangible or accessible to a young person.

Some core skills do not rely on any specific qualification – particularly communication, creativity and teamwork. But the sad reality is the profession is not as diverse as it should be.

We saw kickstart as our chance to challenge this and set out to recruit a cohort of young people from FE, rather than from traditional HE backgrounds.

Between May 2021 and July this year, 22 young people took up this opportunity and discovered that, despite often having only the vaguest of ideas about what a social researcher might do all day, they could build the skills necessary for success.

Together, they designed and delivered research on issues as diverse as fatphobia, financial literacy and being a young person with ADHD in the workplace.

And we, as an organisation, have grown so much from their input, while also seeing many of our kickstarters grown their skills and confidence immeasurably.  

Greater ambition 

We now publish our evaluation of this work – which, sadly, has shown just how hard it is to attract young people from less traditional, non-university backgrounds into this kind of role.

Our aim was specifically to provide opportunities to school – and college-leavers.

Yet fewer than a third of those that applied to our programme had not attended HE, and we had to work hard with local job centres to raise the necessary understanding for them to put the opportunity to young people. 

There were many flaws in the way the programme was implemented by DWP, and The Young Foundation, as an organisation, has also learned much along the way.

What we most want to see in the future for such schemes is a greater ambition and belief in what young people from FE can achieve.

Ambition about the types of careers available to young people leaving FE.

Ambition about the types of organisations who can deliver valuable and meaningful opportunities.

And ambition about breaking down barriers across geography, socio-economic divides, and cultural backgrounds. 

In a (post)-pandemic world, where hybrid and remote work are increasingly possible, greater opportunity should be blossoming for FE leavers, regardless of their location or circumstance.

But these opportunities are worthless if young people don’t know about them. That’s the missing link, and greater support for advisers working in colleges and job centres is vital in bridging it.  

The social research profession desperately needs to diversify, and our experience shows that young people from further education have both the talent and the ambition to drive exciting work in this field – if only they’re given the chance.