Tens of thousands of new work experience and training placements from construction to hospitality will be available for young people as part of Government efforts to tackle the joblessness crisis.
The 300,000 new placements over the next three years are backed by some of Britain’s biggest employers, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said.
These include Manchester and Gatwick airports, and the Government has vowed placements will reach young people across the country.
The placements, also expected to include health and social care, have been confirmed just a day after a report warning of the risk of a “lost generation”.
The number of the UK’s 16 to 24-year-olds not in employment, education or training – known as Neets – rose to more than a million, figures published on Thursday confirmed.
Former Labour cabinet minister Alan Milburn, who was tasked with leading the review into Neets, wrote that lack of work experience is “the single most-cited barrier to work amongst young people”.
His report said: “At present, the provision of work experience is an afterthought for many schools. Students are often told to find their own placements. Unsurprisingly, those without strong networks and connections are more likely to miss out.”
The review author said the “first rung of the career ladder has thinned” and is now “simply out of reach” for many young people.
Former health secretary Alan Milburn following the publication of the interim Milburn Report into Young People and Work (Jeff Moore/PA)
PA Wire
He added: “That places them in a hopeless Catch-22 where employers ask for work experience but the opportunities for young people to gain it have narrowed or gone.”
The Department for Work and Pensions said the 300,000 placements will comprise of work experience and what are known as Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (Swaps).
The latter are short Government-funded programmes for jobseekers claiming benefits, offering training, hands-on experience of the workplace and a guaranteed job interview, the department said.
Mr McFadden said: “The evidence is clear, give young people real work experience and the chances of them building a lasting career increase dramatically.
“That’s why we are creating 300,000 new placements, backed by some of Britain’s biggest employers, to give young people the skills, confidence and connections they need to get on.
“This generation deserves every opportunity to succeed, and this Government is determined to deliver it.”
