21 November 2024
LONDON – Responding to the new data from the Office for National Statistics that shows 946,000 young people in the UK are not in education, employment, or training (NEET), Ben Gadsby, Head of Policy and Research at Impetus and author of the groundbreaking Youth Jobs Gap report series, commented:
Today’s NEET stats underscore the urgent need for government to invest in proven solutions to address youth unemployment.
Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are twice as likely to be NEET as their better-off peers, with long-term impacts including lower wages even decades later. At a time of workforce shortages, we simply cannot afford to waste their potential to drive the growth agenda. Investing in evidence-backed interventions is imperative.
Too often, the good intentions of operating at a large scale, to address a large problem, are prioritised over impact. Initiatives like Youth Hubs show us that scale alone isn’t enough – impact depends on empowered leadership, sustainable funding, and a commitment to following the evidence.
With the 'Get Britain Working' White Paper on the horizon, we urge the government to embed these principles into its youth guarantee. We will continue to work closely with the government through the Youth Employment Group to ensure all young people get the support they need to succeed.
Fortunately, we already know a lot about which interventions are most successful at getting NEET young people into work or education. The Department of Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Employment Datalab analyses existing programmes to demonstrate impact and identify interventions that make a meaningful difference – including findings from a new DWP report released yesterday.
The Spear Programme, developed by former Impetus partner Resurgo, is a standout example. Using coaching to help young people facing employment barriers, the programme is one of the best-evidenced interventions in the sector, with participants 25% more likely to secure employment a year after completing the programme. If all NEET young people received support as effective as Resurgo’s Spear, we could reduce the number of young people who are NEET by 150,000, filling 18 percent of the vacancies in the economy.
Impetus transforms the lives of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, by ensuring they get the right support to succeed in school, work, and life. We find, fund, and build the most promising organisations working with these young people, providing core funding and working shoulder-to-shoulder with their leaders to help them become stronger organisations. In partnership with other funders, we help them expand, and we work to influence policy and decision-makers so that young people get the support they need. We know that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are no less talented or capable than their peers – but they too often lack the resources they need to thrive. Impetus strives to change that.
To find out more about Impetus, visit impetus.org.uk.
For media enquiries, please contact alex.freeman@impetus.org.uk for more on policy and julia.evans@resurgo.org.uk for more on Resurgo’s Spear Programme.
