Heading for the scrapheap: A generation ignored

Nearly one in five 18-year-old boys and one in six girls are not in employment, education or training (“NEET”) and earlier this month a count from the Department for Work and Pensions found 600,000 people under the age of 25 have never done a day’s work in their lives.

In 2003 in the UK, 12.1 per cent of those aged 20-24 came into the category classed as ‘early school leavers’. By 2008 this had risen to 17%. The increase in the NEET count amounted to 40%. The effect of Britain’s growing proportion of NEETs means that in 2008 there were more badly educated young people than in 22 other EU countries. In 2003, only ten countries had young people who were doing better.

In the past five years alone, 12 countries have overtaken Britain with improved work and training for young people. This leaves just four of Western Europe's 27 nations with larger proportions of NEETs than the UK.

Only a year ago the Association of Learning providers criticised the lack of provision for 16 and 17 year olds NEETs. Their main concern was that under-18s school-leavers who are currently unemployed are largely disregarded by the welfare to work system. In recent years dedicated pre-employment provision for this age group has been largely limited to the Entry to Employment (e2e) programme which targeted disaffected and disengaged youngsters. However this leaves a relatively large cohort of unemployed 16/17 year olds for whom no employment support mechanisms are in place.

Many ESF funded NEET programmes closed in December and the last of the E2e provisions will end in two years time. Very few new initiatives are being put forward to replace them, though later this year a new NEET initiative in London will be announced, although, of course, future learners will (in all probability) not have the advantage of the EMA allowance - thus making it far less attractive for potential learners..

LSIS has offered some funding through the Flexibility and Innovation Fund, but this is a more general funding source rather than a specific NEET targeted allocation. For its part, the government has argued the Work Programme will support NEET learners and help them find sustainable employment. However, there is now a huge body of evidence supporting the view that these learners require targeted, accessible and tailored programmes that recognise the chaotic lives these individuals face.

What is abundantly clear is that NEET learners require very different interventions from that of, for instance, an unemployed plasterer or local government worker. A one-size fits all provision such as the Work Programme is not the answer. Without investment in services reflecting the broad range of needs facing NEET young people, we will continue to see an escalating number failing to realise their full potential.

The previous Labour government failed to fully address the needs of NEETs and now the Tories, with their ‘Cuts! Cuts! Cuts!” mantra, seem even less likely to offer our youth a fair chance. This inactivity by our political masters will ultimately yield a generation where many will have little or no work experience, few qualifications and a plethora of psychological and emotional problems. It is an outrage we are ignoring their needs of todays youth and the government should be held to account now – before the damage becomes irrepairable.