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

We catch up with Deirdre Hughes, Associate Professor at the University of Warwick’s Institute for Employment Research and founder of DMH Associates, at the recent Breaking Barriers collective, a collective intelligence event in partnership with Edge Foundation and FE News, which was looking how to support youth engagement, youth employment and crack the NEET puzzle.

Deirdre pulls no punches when she describes the scale of the NEET crisis. A decade ago, she used to say we could fill every Premier League football stadium with unemployed young people. Now, she says, we could fill those stadiums and every other league besides. This is urgent.

Young people have lost their line of sight to opportunity

So what’s gone wrong? Deirdre’s diagnosis is sharp: young people have lost their line of sight to opportunity. The labour market has grown more complex, new qualifications keep arriving that young people can’t make sense of, and the three footholds that matter most, getting into work, getting on in work, and moving up in work, have all become harder to reach at once.

Three Quick Wins

Her three quick wins are practical and pointed. Reinstate professional careers guidance, restoring the partnership model between schools, colleges, and trained advisers that the previous government dismantled by offloading responsibility onto teachers without the budget or expertise to deliver it. Make labour market intelligence freely accessible through Skills England, so schools and colleges aren’t paying for data that should be a public good. And go deeper into communities by establishing civic boards that put young people at the centre, working alongside police, health professionals, careers services and youth workers.

On the system side, Deirdre wants cross-departmental focus and, boldly, a minister in cabinet with explicit responsibility for youth. On the ground, she wants success stories amplified and AI-assisted support that keeps humans in the loop.

The message is clear: strategy matters, but delivery is what reaches young people. We just need to bring people around the table and then get on with it.

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.