Youth to get ‘guaranteed’ training as part of jobs overhaul

Young people will have guaranteed access to apprenticeships and training, the government has pledged, as part of a wider proposed overhaul of the jobs market.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the government inherited a country that “isn’t working” and promised to tackle the biggest drivers of unemployment and inactivity.

But many of the details have not yet been confirmed, and a review of sickness benefits will not begin until next year.

The Conservatives said the proposals showed Labour was “not prepared to take the tough but necessary choices to bring down the benefits bill”.

The number of people classed as economically inactive – not employed or actively looking for work – surged during Covid to over nine million and has remained at that level since.

Some 2.8 million people are out of work due to long-term sickness, though it is unclear how much of this is Covid-related.

The rate of UK economic inactivity is at its highest among 16 to 24-year-olds.

The government said on Tuesday its Get Britain Working white paper will boost the size of the British workforce with the “biggest employment reforms in a generation”.

The government has pledged to increase the employment rate to 80% from its current level of around 75%, which would mean around two million more people in work.

As part of this, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced funds to cut waiting lists at the 20 NHS trusts with the highest levels of economic inactivity, in a bid to get more people currently off sick back to work.

She also announced plans to expand mental health support and efforts to tackle obesity.

There were several other proposals revealed in the white paper:

• Every 18 to 21-year-old in England will get access to an apprenticeship, training or education opportunities or help to find a job as part of a new “Youth Guarantee” project
• Job centres will be rebranded as the National Jobs and Careers Service
• There will be an independent review of what UK employers are doing to promote health and inclusive workplaces
• The North East of England, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire will get more cash to stop people falling out of work because of ill health

Getting more people into work and equipping younger people with skills is seen as essential to the government’s goal of boosting productivity and delivering growth.

But it also does not want to be seen as a “soft touch” by some on welfare payments.

Helen Whately, shadow secretary of state for work and pensions, said the government had “dodged the difficult decisions on sickness benefits, which are needed to make the welfare system sustainable in the long term”.

The government has said young people must take up offers of a job or training, or lose their benefits, and that it is going to review those rules.

Employment Minister Alison McGovern told the BBC that “when good help is offered, it is taken up, that is normally what happens”.

She said for the “small minority” who do not take up job offers there are already rules to take away benefits.

Benefits sanctions can kick in if a claimant does not accept an agreement to look for work, if they miss a job centre appointment, or if they decline a job offer.

Gary Wroe, managing director of Hockley Mint, a jewellery manufacturer in Birmingham, employs 98 people and takes on a number of apprentices each year.

However, Mr Wroe said the business would struggle to continue to recruit apprentices given the National Insurance rise, something other businesses have also criticised the government for.

One of his current apprentices, 17-year-old Abi said she knew of people who had left school but had not gone on to work.

“I think a lot of it does actually come down to lockdown. I think because people just kind of sat in the house and they didn’t do anything,” she added.

Peter Cheese, chief executive of HR body the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development, said the government’s plans were a step in the right direction but called for “more ambition… [to] make apprenticeships a viable alternative to university”.

Business lobby group the CBI said employers would have a key role in delivering jobs and training opportunities, but added there was “no doubt that rising taxes and employment costs will make it more difficult for them to do so”.

The latest official data puts the employment rate at 74.8%, the economic inactivity rate at 21.8%, and the unemployment rate at 4.3% – with 1.49 million people out of work.

However, there have been question marks over the reliability of data on employment due to a decline in the number of people taking part in the official Labour Force Survey.

Recent analysis by the Resolution Foundation think tank suggested the survey had underestimated employment growth since 2019, and overestimated economic inactivity.

The think tank said the government’s employment plans were “full of good intentions” but the “youth guarantee” that every young person has a chance of earning or learning needed to be “cast-iron”.