Delivering an exclusive video message to FE News’ Breaking Barriers event, Skills Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith set out the government’s response to what she called an urgent challenge, with more than one in eight 16 to 24 year olds in England now not in education, employment or training.
Baroness Smith, whose brief spans both the Department for Education and the Department for Work and Pensions, was clear that the government “will not leave a generation behind,” pointing to the gaps young people fall through at key transition points between school, further education and work. More than half of young people who are NEET have a health condition, she noted, and those with SEND or low attainment face a greater risk of falling out of the system.
The response, she said, is both to prevent and to respond: new risk of NEET indicator (RONI) tools to identify young people earlier, a strengthened role for schools so every learner leaves with a clear planned destination, and a guaranteed post-16 place where one is missing.
At the heart of the plan sits the Youth Guarantee. An additional £1 billion takes total investment in the Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy to £2.5 billion over three years, supporting almost a million young people and creating up to 500,000 opportunities to earn or learn. Backing this are youth hubs, a youth guarantee gateway in job centres, a £3,000 youth jobs grant and a £2,000 apprenticeship incentive for SMEs.
Breaking barriers, the minister closed, “is much more than a theme. It’s a shared mission.”
