Three reasons to be hopeful about the future for young people

We have a choice, Conference. Either we invest in our young people, or we pay for failure through the benefits system. Truthfully, we can’t afford to do both. My choice is to invest in them.

The Prime Minister’s words in Liverpool yesterday represented the culmination of a conference that was arguably the most positive for the prospects of out of work young people this century.

It was not just the Prime Minister with a clear statement of intent to address the nearly one million young people currently not in education, employment or training (NEET). Chancellor John Healey used his conference speech to set out how "we can help this generation move from Generation Jeopardy to Generation Hope".

And the Work and Pensions Secretary, Pat McFadden, set out his plans for rebalancing the equation when it comes to what the state spends on benefits and employment support for young people:

Twenty-five pounds spent on inactivity for every one pound spent on getting people into work. It is the wrong way round. In fact, it’s shameful, it’s unacceptable and we will change it.

On top of these statements of intent from senior cabinet members, an energised and pervasive presence around the conference was Alan Milburn, whose final report into young people and work is expected soon and will be pivotal in informing the government’s future direction of travel on NEETs. Milburn spoke passionately about how, from his experience, young people of today are not 'flaky', 'soft' or 'not resilient'. For Milburn, young people are not the problem, the system is, and he cited the need for more intentionality to tackle the NEET crisis.

Building better lives

At a roundtable focused on building better lives for young people, hosted by the homeless charity Centrepoint, I was asked a question around how we get organisations to work better together for the 16-24 cohort. Part of my answer was that strong political leadership is vital.

Ultimately, it is governments who design the systems and set the frameworks which enable public, private and voluntary sector organisations to contribute to helping a young person on their journey into work. It’s what Alan Milburn referred to as 'intentionality'. Right now, it does feel like the direction from the centre is increasingly clear, which puts an onus on delivery partners to step up to the plate too.

With the Jobs Guarantee, that is exactly what they are doing. In action since the spring, this DWP programme gives a six-month paid job opportunity to young people who have been in receipt of Universal Credit for more than 18 months. The Jobs Guarantee is being delivered as a partnership between the public, private and voluntary sectors. Reed in Partnership is currently delivering phase one of the scheme across Hertfordshire and Essex.

Pat McFadden spoke earlier this week of the young people he had met who had enrolled on the Jobs Guarantee. Some of them have been in receipt of benefits for up to four years, but through the support offered by the service, they were feeling more optimistic. He said:

They were full of optimism, they were full of confidence and most of all they were full of hope for the future.

This tallies with our experience of the young people we work with. No one programme can offer a silver bullet to what is a national crisis. But the Jobs Guarantee is playing an important part in resolving what is one of the biggest barriers to young people being in work – the lack of a first chance.

Creating more first chances throughout the economy is one part of how we will solve the NEET crisis. It’s why Reed in Partnership is a founding member of Alan Milburn’s First Chance Movement of organisations who are showing the commitment to increasing young people’s opportunities.

In the bigger picture, Alan Milburn has referred to the need for 'systemic change' if we are truly to get to grips with the magnitude of the youth unemployment endemic. We are awaiting his final review, but at Reed in Partnership we have sketched out one possible route for that wider system change.

It comes in the form of a 'three-lane superhighway into work' for young people. It’s a system that would be agnostic between the university, apprenticeship and direct to employment lanes post-16, but that crucially would see each pathway being equally advantageous and supported by the state for the young person on their journey.

Our submission to the Milburn Review expands further on this system, and you can read our full paper here. It was encouraging that the Prime Minister spoke this week of coming reforms which would see 'parity between academic and technical' routes.

For the potential if we get this right, look only to the Netherlands. Fifteen years ago Dutch NEET rates were around what they are in the UK today. After making the decision to invest significantly in vocational education and apprenticeships, they are now the lowest in the European Union.