Rise in youth unemployment is fuelling a lost generation

UNISON, the UK’s largest union, is calling on the Government to take urgent, coordinated action to tackle the scandal of rising youth unemployment. “It is disgrace” said the union that the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) in England rose by 100,000 in the second quarter of the year.

Jon Richards, UNISON Head of Education said:

“It is a disgrace that so many of our young people are not in education, employment or training and this figure is rising. Youth unemployment should be one of the Government’s top priorities, instead they are creating a lost generation.

“The government is fuelling the problem and sacrificing young people’s futures by withdrawing access to decent careers guidance and gambling that schools will fill the gap, with no additional funding. Faced with a bleak jobs market, young people need a highly skilled, professional careers service now more than ever. But in many towns and cities across the country they will now find closed doors where their careers office used to be.

“We are urging the government to step up, provide sufficient resources, and help restore the high quality careers services that young people need to give them hope for the future.”

The union is warning that the number of NEETs is set to rise further as school and college leavers struggle to join the jobs market. Youth unemployment should be one of the government’s top priorities yet it’s response so far has been piecemeal and inconsistent, with responsibilities split across the Department of Education, BIS and DWP – and no-one with responsibility for the big picture.

At present no agency tracks or has responsibility for young people making the onwards transition from school. Compared to other northern European countries, young people in the UK are largely left to navigate the transition to work and responsible adulthood alone.

Across the country a damaging postcode lottery is also developing. In Birmingham - a city in the top 20 youth unemployment hotspots - the budget for careers services has fallen from £11m to £3.8m since 2010. More than two-thirds of the staff have lost their jobs and only one advice centre remains open. In six London boroughs - Kingston, Merton, Sutton, Richmond, Croydon and Bromley - all the Connexions offices have been closed. In Hull the staffing levels of careers advisers has been reduced from 81 to 18.

Notes to Editors

1. The Education Act 2011 places a new statutory duty on schools to secure access to independent careers guidance for all pupils in years 9 to 11 from September 2012. This should include information on all the options available in 16-18 education and training, including apprenticeships, and should be impartial and independent, and this is defined as ‘provided by persons other than those employed at the school’. In-house provision must be complemented by external support, which includes face-to-face guidance but only for those whom schools alone decide need it.

2. Local Authorities, due to financial pressures, made massive cuts in careers services provision in both 2010/11 and 2011/12. Research in 2011 has shown that by July 2011 about 4,000 staff had been made redundant already and a further 4,000 were at risk over the next year. Advice centres and services have closed. This happened before the new careers service had been designed and before the implementation of the Education Act that transferred commissioning responsibility from Local authorities to schools from September 2012. In many cases this could contravene the current statutory minimum service levels expected.

3. Tens of thousands of young people effectively have no access to ‘face to face’ career guidance services and in some Local Authorities, no service is being provided at all. Current 14 -19 year old pupils will be the least informed about their future career options in a generation, at a time when the Government has radically changed the education and training environment by; abolishing the Education Maintenance Allowance and the Future Jobs Fund, raising HE tuition fees, reducing the number of HE / FE places For parents of children currently in Year 10 or Year 11:for the year 2011/12 career guidance services will be a geographical lottery. In some areas young people leaving compulsory education will have no access to independent, expert career guidance at all.