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Depressingly, there is nothing new about the fact that too many young people in the UK have a hard time finding work, the right kind of training or college course, or their way. Those between 16 and 24 who fall into that category are given the really ugly acronym “Neets” - not in education, employment or training.
What’s different now is that the numbers ending up in that situation are growing, with Milburn warning today that if nothing is done, one in six young people could find themselves as Neets in five years. It’s not surprising then, that he describes the situation as “shameful”. Nor is it that he said on Sunday - and has underlined - today that nothing short of a total reboot is needed to sort this out - in health, welfare, education and from employers, too.
That, though, needs not retired politicians like Milburn, but current politicians to grab the issue firmly, make decisions and get on with it. Looking back over time, there has been no shortage of attempts to make headway with a problem the UK’s had for decades. The Youth Training Scheme, which started back in 1983, was the first time that a government gave cash to employers to help get young people into work. It was a huge scheme, sometimes mocked or hated because of the levels of pay. But at some points as many as 45% of school leavers were going on to the scheme - and it did have a significant impact.
Labour under Sir Tony Blair and, you guessed it, Alan Milburn, had a different scheme - the New Deal for Young People, which was funded by a one-off tax on the utility companies. Since then there’s been a bewildering array of other schemes too - the Youth Contract, the Future Jobs Fund, the Kickstart Scheme, Youth Employment Hubs - all with varying degrees of success. The government now has the youth guarantee, the youth offer, foundation apprenticeships, technical excellence colleges, T-levels, V-levels, the Restart scheme… the list goes on.
It’s easy for government ministers to say they are worried about something. It’s easy for them to ask an experienced political operator to look at what’s gone wrong. But it’s harder to work out what the answer might be, and then invest and stick to it with determination in the long term. Milburn’s suggested solutions aren’t due for another few months.
The prime minister said earlier it was a “sobering” report and that the government “will not allow a lost generation”. He added: “We’ll work with Alan now on what more needs to be done.” But it’s not clear if he’s sticking around to make a decision about what to do next. It was worth noting that Milburn also told us on Sunday he thought that mayors and councils should take charge of the solutions, and he’d already been talking to some of them. I wonder who he might have had in mind? Just possibly one who has been running one of England’s biggest cities and has sights on No 10?
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