Youth Futures Foundation responds to the Chancellor’s announcement

We welcome the Chancellor’s focus today on doing more to address the challenge of one in eight young people not earning or learning.  The commitments outlined - which guarantee young people a place in college, an apprenticeship or one-to-one support to find a job- alongside the offer of a subsidised work placement for those who have been out of work for 18 months, will be an important part of the response needed to help give our young people better futures.

Given the softening labour market and the growing scale of the youth unemployment and inactivity challenge today, we have been recommending the need for a wage subsidy scheme to incentivise and support employers to provide young people with crucial opportunities. Evidence shows that, when well-targeted, wage subsidy schemes can be particularly impactful for young people – especially those most marginalised and locked outside of the labour market for extended periods.

As the What Works Centre for youth employment, we know international evidence highlights the importance of how a scheme is designed. Minimum placement duration, wraparound employability and skills support, and a clear focus on those who need it most, including those not engaging with existing offers, will all be critical to ensuring success.

We look forward to further details in the Autumn budget and to continuing to work closely with Government, employers, partners and young people to make the new scheme a success. The opportunity of addressing this challenge is clear – not only do we have a moral duty to our young people, but there is a huge economic prize; research tells us that if we could reduce our NEET rate to that of the Netherlands, the lowest in the OECD, this would be worth £69bn and would mean approximately 500,000 more young people would be earning or learning.

Barry Fletcher, CEO at Youth Futures Foundation