Why does the Youth Employment Group exist?

The Youth Employment Group (YEG) exists to ensure that there is a quality employment, education or training pathway for all young people, in particular the most marginalised.

Why was the YEG set up?

In 2020, in response to the crisis and its impact on young people, Impetus, Youth Futures Foundation, Youth Employment UK, the Institute for Employment Studies, the Learning & Work Institute and The King's Trust formed the Youth Employment Group (YEG) to bring together the youth employment sector to help drive the UK’s response. Now with over 300 member organisations, our coalition advocates for full and inclusive employment for young people.

What does the YEG do?

It brings together the UK’s largest coalition of youth employment experts and the latest evidence and insight, with young people who have faced or are facing barriers to employment. Together they:

• 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.

How will this be achieved?

The YEG advocates for urgent action across the UK to:

1. Tackle the systemic issues that mean hundreds of thousands of young people are left out of employment and education, permanently damaging their long-term health and wealth
2. Protect young people during periods of economic uncertainty and labour market decline
3. Improve the quality and accessibility of support for all young people so that they can secure and progress in employment, education and training.

How are young people involved?

We are committed to embedding the views and experiences of young people and the challenges they are facing through the Youth Voice Forum, chaired by young people. It meets monthly on a range of topics, providing a space for them to engage in the YEG and share their experiences, challenges, ideas and solutions.

What do the YEG subgroups focus on?

Through a partnership with the Westminster Foundation, the YEG supports subgroups that focus on the causes and solutions of issues facing different groups of young people, and the support they need. These subgroups focus on:

• Disability

• Youth justice

• Apprenticeships

• Self-employment

• Employers

• Quality of work

• Ethnic disparities

As Co-Chair of the YEG Ethnic Disparities subgroup, I want to uncover what influences the employment prospects of young people from minoritised ethnic backgrounds. Currently, we are identifying how evidence is informing policy and practice in this area, as well as pinpointing gaps in knowledge. Our aim is to support more young people into high-quality education, training or employment by developing evidence-based recommendations.

Kahiye Alim, Director, Council of Somali Organisations

How do I join?

If your organisation would like to join the Youth Employment Group to share your practices, insights and/or research, please complete our member enquiry form.

Established in April 2020, the YEG has been advocating for full and inclusive employment for young people

• September 2023: The YEG proposes a transformational offer for our young people: The Young Person’s Guarantee. This paper emerges from a broad series of conversations, discussions, and consultative sessions and is shaped by a range of experts, organisations, and perspectives. | The Young Person's Guarantee, The Youth Employment Group
• January 2023: Research from the IFS found that the generation who entered the labour market during the pandemic have largely bucked the trend of previous recessions, where those individuals suffer lasting damage to their prospects | Are the kids alright? The early careers of education leavers since the COVID-19 pandemic, The Institute for Fiscal Studies
• November 2022: The YEG Ethnic Disparities sub-group is launched at the House of Lords. The results of a survey of 2,200 ethnic minority young people are released. Minister Mims Davies announces her new role as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Social Mobility, Youth and Progression following YEG calls for greater cross-government accountability and collaboration to tackle youth unemployment | Launch of ethnic disparities research at landmark event, Youth Futures Foundation
• July 2022: The Ethnic Disparities sub-group commissioned Savanta ComRes to carry out a rapid youth voice survey of young people from ethnic minority backgrounds experiences of navigating the labour market.
  
• March 2022: The Ethnic Disparities sub-group commissioned the Learning & Work Institute to carry out a data analysis project looking at gaps in the data for young minority ethnic groups.
  
• November 2021: The YEG's recommendations largely adopted in the House of Lords Youth Unemployment Committee's Skills for Every Young Person report  | Skills for every young person, House of Lords Youth Unemployment Committee (pdf, 3.9mb)
• August 2021: The YEG called on the Prime Minister to deliver an Opportunity Guarantee for young people | Call covered in the Mirror
• July 2021: The YEG launched a new paper at the APPG for Youth Employment, providing a framework for the Government to deliver on its Opportunity Guarantee | Levelling Up for Young People: Building an Opportunity Guarantee (pdf, 2mb)
• January and February 2021: The YEG called for an extension to Kickstart, the government’s flagship youth employment COVID-19 programme, publishing a paper on the Five reasons to extend ‘Kickstart’ | Call covered by the Independent
• September 2020: The YEG launched their recommendations paper Securing a place for young people in the nation’s economic recovery, calling for government to support the creation of 1,000 extra opportunities per day for young people | Call covered by Channel 4 News
• June 2020: The YEG called for an Opportunity Guarantee for young people | Call published in The Times
• April 2020: The Youth Employment Group launched | Covered by the Independent
• December 2019: Several youth employment organisations convene at The King's Trust to discuss what realistic targets could we set governments to reduce youth unemployment, with the aim of developing a consensus position.