The government is not doing enough to support young people to take their first steps towards work or an apprenticeship, Labour’s shadow minister for FE has said.
Gordon Marsden issued his warning as new figures from the government showed that there had been no significant change in the proportion of young people who were not in education, employment and training (NEET) - both among those aged 16-18 and those aged 19-24 - between the quarter of October to December 2016 and the same quarter in 2017.
Mr Marsden said: “These figures are stubbornly stuck. In the 19-24 category, it is particularly concerning that the government doesn’t seem to be making many inroads into retraining or supporting a group of young people who are often left out of policymaking.”
He added: “The statistics also confirm our point that the government is simply not doing enough to make use of the huge potential value of traineeships in getting young people to the starting position for a job or to where they are able to get a coveted apprenticeship place.”
Young people ‘need to fill skills gap’
The figures released by the government this morning show that the rate of 19-24 year-olds and 16-24 year-olds who are NEET remained “relatively stable [in the final quarter of 2017], both decreasing slightly by 0.2 percentage points from the comparable quarter in 2016”.
“Over the same period, the 16-18 NEET rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points.”
However, the report said: “None of these annual changes to the NEET rates were statistically significant.” This means more than 600,000 young people are not in work or education.
The statistics also revealed that the proportion of NEET young people is largest in the North East, at 14 per cent, compared with 9.4 per cent in the South West. Mr Marsden said these were key manufacturing and skills areas in “which we’ll need to do well and recruit more young people after Brexit, given the potential exodus of many EU and also some non-EU skilled workers.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Almost nine out of ten young people are now in education, employment or training, which is fantastic news - because all young people deserve the best possible chance to learn the skills they need for further study or work. That’s why we’re continuing to raise standards in schools, colleges and universities, create more high-quality apprenticeships and bringing in T levels to give young people a world class technical education.”
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