Launch pad: the future of youth employment hubs

Summary

The report is the first major piece of research on Youth Employment Hubs, set up by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in 2020 to help young people find work.

Demos conducted site visits, stakeholder interviews and focus groups with young people at existing Youth Employment Hubs.

. The existing network of Hubs supported 14,000 young people in the year 2023-24.

Key insights

Youth Employment Hubs are:

• an innovative and effective way of providing high-quality support to young people to help them secure employment or training.
• a new way of working, bringing together multiple services, such as employment support, careers advice, skills training and mental health services, in a single ‘one stop shop’ building.
• preferable to ‘intimidating’ Jobcentres, with young people interviewed commenting on the ‘positive environments’ of Hubs.

Recommendations include:

• capitalising on the existing Hubs programme by committing to  £100 million annual funding, with Treasury, Department for Work and Pensions and Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government working together