Opening the Door: Why Partnerships hold the key to Solving the NEET Crisis

Like many across the education and training sector, I am eagerly awaiting Alan Milburn’s final report on young people and work.  

Now expected after the Autumn Budget, it promises to be one of the most significant, if not controversial, overhauls of employment and benefits support for young people in a generation. 

A vast challenge  

The scale of the challenge is stark. Around one million young people aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment or training with Milburn’s interim report (published in May) warning that without action that figure could rise to 1.25m in the next five years. 

What struck me most was his finding that this generation really is chartering new waters with NEETs becoming detached from the world of work altogether. Six in 10 of them have never had a job, while 45% of 24-year-olds, have never worked even a Saturday gig – something that was the right of passage for many generations before them. Yet by contrast, 84% say they want a job or training, so the ambition is there, but the opportunity and the support to reach it is not. 

The first rung is disappearing 

The reasons are complex and cut across every sector. Entry level roles and youth apprenticeships are disappearing, while rising ill health, particularly anxiety and depression, has become a defining feature of the crisis. Add to that the cost of hiring for employers and daunting recruitment processes and it’s easy to see why so many are struggling to find work. 

The cost of getting this wrong is enormous. Milburn estimates the NEET crisis costs the UK around £125bn a year in lost output, lost tax and higher spending on benefits and health. But the human cost is greater still, with young people losing their confidence, their connections and their chance to get on in life. 

That’s why I welcomed Milburn’s recent call for a new national pre-apprenticeship route, delivered mainly through colleges and combining English and maths, technical training and real experience with an employer. 

The more preparation young people have before they start an apprenticeship, the better. It encourages more of them into vocational careers and sets them up to succeed once they’re there. FE colleges are perfectly placed to lead this, but they can’t do it alone. 

At PfP Thrive, we see every day what happens when young people are given a genuine pathway; the hands-on experience, confidence and connections that so many employers look for. In housing and construction, that’s why we focus on small, practical opportunities that can change lives. 

Our recent efforts include our summer Taster days, which gave local teenagers a real feel for careers in construction and housing maintenance, often for the first time. And we’ve just completed our pilot BuildHER programme – while not exclusively for those outside work or education, it has supported women in that position to gain skills, experience and a route into the industry. 

These programmes are supplemented by short, hands-on courses too, like our Kitchen Fitters Programme, which help people bridge the gap between qualifications and real world site experience. 

A road that leads to somewhere…  

But preparation only works if there’s a job at the end of it. In my view, the key to making pre-apprenticeships a success is employers committing to hire apprentices as a core part of their long-term talent strategy, not as a one-off. Combine that commitment with meaningful incentives for employers to take on apprentices, and the impact could be significant. 

It matters for the sectors themselves too. In housing and construction, around a third of the workforce is over 50 and only a fifth is under 30 and every industry facing an ageing workforce has a stake in opening doors for the next generation. 

Partnerships make it work 

From my experience in the housing and construction sectors, the way to best do this is through partnerships. At PfP Thrive we collaborate with housing associations, contractors, and other training providers – working together to deliver homes, services and social value in communities across the country. That created an estimated £8,051,800 in Social Value in the year to April 2026 and, through internal apprenticeships, £3m in Social Value was generated through higher earning potential and decreased likelihood in unemployment. These apprenticeships also generated around £450,000 of wellbeing uplifts for learners on these courses, while internal courses delivered a further £1.6m in wellbeing uplifts.  

And PfP Thrive now supports more than 60 housing associations via which we’ve trained thousands of people- such a partnership model, combining employers, educators and communities, could make the government’s plans for young people a success, regardless of how much funding is put behind them. When organisations commit to growing their own talent, young people get a genuine chance, employers get the skilled workforce they need, and communities benefit. 

The cost question 

Back to Milburn and there are legitimate questions about what’s ahead. Any welfare reform proposals will need to be funded, with some suggesting a major overhaul could cost more in the short term than maintaining the status quo. Milburn himself has argued that money should be redirected from the welfare system towards employment support – a debate that will run and run.  

This week’s Budget will give us our first look at how the government intends to approach it, but whatever the funding settlement, I believe there’s a responsibility on all of us, employers, colleges, training providers and communities, to open doors for young people, just as others did for the generations before them. 

By Tom Arey, Academy Director at PfP Thrive