Taking Apart the Youth Employment System: Three Lessons from Breaking Barriers

I was delighted to work with colleagues at FE News’ Breaking Barriers event on a construction job. We worked to take apart the youth employment system and figure out how to reassemble it all in a way that better serves young people. 

Naturally, with a task as ambitious as this, the two hours we had weren’t quite sufficient for a total system redesign. But three key areas dominated our discussion and are worth drawing out for future interrogation of the youth employment system. 

The importance of early, one to one support 

Colleagues all noted that preventing young people from becoming NEET often involved intervening early with one to one support. Successful models of this had been observed by discussion participants in the youth justice system with young people who had been given non-custodial sentences, as well as in local authorities that had funded one to one careers guidance for all local pupils in Years 8 and 9. The discussion also touched on tools that can support those involved in early one to one interventions, for example, online platforms that map local careers service provision. 

Critical to this discussion was a sense of the vital role that trusted adults can play in providing young people with the guidance and pastoral support young people need to find and succeed in work. It’s because of this importance that we’re using this year’s Youth Voice Census, the largest annual survey of young people in the country, to get under the skin of young people’s contact with adults they trust. 

The need for more vocational study and training earlier in education 

Our group converged on a general sense that the current education system has a one size fits all model, especially pre-16, that fails many learners. While developments in vocational education, such as V-levels, were welcomed, there was a view in the group that vocational and hands-on pathways should be present and valued from an earlier age. This aligns with our longstanding policy to ask for a ‘Young person’s entitlement’, a comprehensive package of enrichment alongside a broader curriculum fit for the modern world of work. 

Moving from youth consultation to youth ownership and leadership 

Youth consultation, for example, through our Youth Voice Census, is central to anchoring youth employment interventions in the needs and interests of young people. But can we go further? Many in our group wondered about equipping young people to lead in developing and delivering solutions to the current NEET crisis. Potential routes to doing this included training formerly NEET young people to provide careers support and guidance to currently NEET young people. But ultimately, the group recognised that determining ways forward here is a process that in itself would need to involve young people. 

The current NEET crisis is a complex constellation of challenges. But we at Youth Employment UK are committed to working with the wider sector and government, as we did with the Breaking Barriers Collective, to find solutions to these problems. We believe passionately that this work can build a system that allows all young people to thrive. 

By Baz Ramaiah, Director of Policy and Research at Youth Employment UK