Working closely with our partner organisations to support young people into sustainable employment, we fund and carry out research that offers fresh insight into the relationship between the likelihood of becoming NEET and disadvantage. We then take these lessons to policy makers.
Youth Employment Group
Impetus is a founding co-chair of the Youth Employment Group (YEG) alongside The King's Trust, Institute for Employment Studies, Learning and Work Institute, Youth Employment UK, and Youth Futures Foundation. Mobilised during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent long-term scarring effects on young people, the YEG now hosts over 300 member organisations, from charities to local authorities to employers.
The YEG works to ensure all young people – particularly those from marginalised backgrounds - have access to a quality employment, education, or training pathway. Bringing together the largest coalition of youth employment experts, evidence, and insight, including the insights of young people with lived experience, it aims to:
- Set the agenda by raising the profile of labour market issues facing young people
- Provide tools with practical guidance on issues and how to tackle them
- Drive change in policy and activity by working with employers, local and national governments, civic society, and young people
Amidst stubbornly high NEET rates and a rising number of young people out of work due to ill health last year, the YEG called on policymakers to adopt The Young Person’s Guarantee. This transformational proposal would guarantee support for under-25s to access empoloyment, training, or education within four months of leaving formal education. Many of these policies have been incorporated into the current government’s Youth Guarantee, and we are working closely with Ministers and policymakers to ensure that the evidence-based recommendations we outlined are implemented to transform the career prospects of young people today.
Widening Participation in Higher Education
Going to university remains one of the best choices a young person can make to increase their chances of succeeding in work and life. But only 26% of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds go to university, compared to 45% of their better-off peers. These figures contribute to the lifelong effect that disadvantage has on employment and earnings.
We have worked with organisations The Access Project and IntoUniversity to improve university access for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, supporting them to increase their impact and scale their programmes.
We also provide the Secretariat for the Fair Access Coalition, a group of eleven widening participation organisations who come together to advocate on issues that affect fair access. After hosting the Director for Fair Access and Participation at the Office for Students (OfS), we established the Third Sector Forum to connect the OfS with third sector organisations to share best practice and discuss policy. The Third Sector Forum’s advocacy helped facilitate the establishment of the Equality in Higher Education Innovation Fund in July 2024, which will provide £2 billion to fund collaborative projects that promote fair access and equal opportunity.
You can read more about our widening participation work here.
