The government has been urged to develop a “plan for jobs” including a youth guarantee, a fund for temporary jobs for young people and apprenticeship reform to reverse the record rise in unemployment triggered by the coronavirus crisis.

Six-month jobs paid at minimum wage should be created and apprenticeships reformed to better support young people, according to a report published by the Learning and Work Institute today. 

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High risk of unemployment

The report says the rise in unemployment following the outbreak of coronavirus has been the sharpest ever seen, with one in three working-age adults now either unemployed, furloughed or supported through the self-employment income support scheme.

It stresses that the impact of the crisis will be felt unevenly across the UK and that young people face a particularly high risk from unemployment, leading to fears of a “pandemic generation”.

The Learning and Work Institute calls on the government to introduce a “plan for jobs”, with large-scale investment and incentives to create jobs and a massive expansion of help to find work.

The plan should also include a “youth guarantee” to prevent a rise in long-term youth unemployment, including maintenance support to help 18-year-olds to stay on in education, as well as an opportunity fund to create ring-fenced temporary jobs for young people and reforms to the apprenticeship system to re-focus funding on young people.

The report says the government should “support more young people to stay in education and study to level 3”.

It says: “That means a £900 million investment in extra education places, a new Youth Training Allowance for 18- to 19-year-olds, and support through Universal Credit for other young people studying up to level 3.

“Second, we should support out-of-work young people to find work. That requires high-quality employment support, backed by a job creation fund granting employers £8,500 to create additional six-month jobs paid at minimum wage.

“Third, we should increase apprenticeships for young people. For the next year, we should allow levy funds to pay up to half of the wage costs of 16- to 24-year-old apprentices and introduce a £4,000 apprenticeship grant for SMEs who recruit apprentices aged 16-24.”

The plan echoes similar calls by the education sector, with the Association of Colleges calling for a September Promise of a place in education or training for every young person. It also comes after prime minister Boris Johnson said every young person should be guaranteed an apprenticeship. 

Stephen Evans, chief executive of Learning and Work Institute, said: “The government has taken unprecedented action to protect jobs and incomes during the crisis. Yet, despite this, we’ve still seen the sharpest spike in joblessness on record, and we risk unemployment rising to levels last seen in the Great Depression.

“We need a plan for jobs whose ambition matches the scale of the challenge by driving employment growth, guaranteeing young people work or training, and providing rapid employment support to the millions of people who now find themselves unemployed.”