Breaking Barriers | Baz Ramaiah: More Good Jobs, Better Employers and Tailored Support. That’s How We Fix the NEET Crisis

We catch up with Baz Ramaiah, Director of Policy and Research at Youth Employment UK, at the recent Breaking Barriers collective, a collective intelligence event in partnership with Edge Foundation and FE News, which was looking at how to support youth engagement, youth employment and crack the NEET puzzle.

Baz doesn’t shy away from the structural reality underneath the NEET crisis. The fundamental issue, he argues, has been neglected for too long: there simply aren’t enough high quality jobs and opportunities for young people. Any serious solution has to start there.

Not just a coordination challenge

Baz’s diagnosis cuts through the noise: this is not just a coordination challenge. Better careers platforms and online tools matter, but they can only do so much if the supply of good opportunities isn’t there in the first place. Fixing that requires investment in the economy, reform of how apprenticeships are gatekept, and real incentives for employers to take on young people.

The scale of the problem is long-standing. The UK has trailed its international competitors on NEET young people since at least the 2008 financial crisis, and arguably long before that.

What employers can do overnight

His quick wins land firmly at the employer level, and they are more actionable than most of what gets discussed at a policy level.

Start with the Youth Employment UK good youth employment standards. Write job adverts that young people can actually understand, with clear salaries and progression pathways spelled out from the start. If you are using AI screening tools, audit them for bias against younger applicants who may have less experience to show but plenty of potential. And if a young person applies and is unsuccessful, tell them. Not eventually. Promptly.

Baz has been travelling the country speaking to young people recently. What keeps coming up is not just the sheer volume of applications young people are making, but the silence that follows. No feedback, no notification, nothing. That experience is actively pushing young people from unemployment into economic inactivity, where they stop looking altogether. These are not complex systemic reforms. Employers can make these changes practically overnight if they have the will to do so, and the difference it would make to how young people experience the labour market should not be underestimated.

Tailored support for a million different stories

On the deeper systemic challenge, Baz is clear that one size won’t fit one million. Each young person who is NEET has their own combination of reasons, whether health, education, or other complex factors interacting with each other. That means the system needs to build real capacity for individualised, tailored support, with trusted adults working directly with young people to understand their needs and coordinate access to the right help.

The message is straightforward: sort out the supply of good jobs, make employers more youth friendly, and build a system capable of meeting each young person where they are. Get that right, and it’s a system that pays for itself through greater economic growth.

Check out the full video below:

Thank you to OAL, who were the media sponsor for the Breaking Barriers collective.

Check out our previous interviews with:

Praful Nargund Discusses Breaking Barriers to Youth Employment and Youth Engagement

Olly Newton: Why Systems Thinking Is The Key To Breaking Barriers For 1 Million Young People

Young person Amy Harcourt Shares Insights From A Young Person’s Perspective On How To Break Down Barriers Into Work for Young People

Ayesha Baloch From Impetus Discusses The Importance Of Reaching ‘Hidden NEETs’ To Break Barriers into Employment.

Deirdre Hughes: Young People Have Lost Their Line of Sight to Opportunity