Joining the Dots: How do we make the youth employment drive really work for young people?
On 17 March, with a nod to St Patrick’s Day, Secretary of State Pat McFadden stood in the House of Commons to outline a new national push on youth employment, announcing plans to unlock 200,000 jobs and apprenticeships for young people alongside wider reforms to employment support.
At a time when an alarming number of young people are struggling to move into entry-level work, training or apprenticeships, the focus on creating more opportunities matters hugely - but for those of us working in the youth sector, the bigger question is not only how many opportunities are being created, but how young people are meant to find them, trust them and stay connected to them.
Young H&F was recently commissioned by the West London Alliance and the Youth Integration Network, which is funded by the Greater London Authority’s Youth Guarantee Trailblazer programme, to research youth employability across West London, and our findings show this is where a key challenge lies. Youth unemployment is not new. What is new is the complexity of the pathway into work. Young people are not only facing a lack of jobs, they are also navigating a plethora of different systems that can feel confusing, fragmented and difficult to move between.
Our mapping across West London just shy of 200 organisations delivering over 250+ youth-facing services around employability – so it’s clear that significant work is already happening to support young people into the opportunities that the DWP are promising to ‘unlock’. There is no shortage of good, well‑intentioned provision, but young people and practitioners alike have told us time and again over the past few months that the system is fragmented, and that the missing piece of the puzzle is a joined‑up system of support with clear access routes.
One of the biggest issues we found is the ‘cliff edge’ young people face at transition points. Support often falls away after school, after a short programme, or when someone is expected to ‘move on to the next stage’. For young people already dealing with uncertainty, low confidence, anxiety or instability, those gaps can be enough to stop progress altogether.
What young people told us they value is simple but crucial to the success of renewed attention on youth employment. Young people want trusted relationships, clear and practical support, and opportunities that feel real. They want paid routes, exposure to workplaces and a clear sense of what happens next. Youth employment is not just about offer; it is about design, continuity and trust and this is why local youth infrastructure like Young People’s Foundations and the Youth Integration Network matters so much.
Our Emerging Leaders programme, is one such example. Over the course of six months, young people will build leadership and workplace skills whilst leading a collaborative research project on how opportunities can reach young people from a wide range of backgrounds more effectively. This approach matters because we are steadfast in the view that young people should not only be recipients of provision; they should also be given agency to help shape it. When youth voice is built into design, support is more likely to feel relevant, accessible and credible.
The DCMS’ youth strategy and the DWP’s latest announcement sets direction and brings a sharper national focus to youth employment, but the task now is to now make that direction meaningful in everyday practice that is rooted in local communities. That means stronger links between organisations, better communication across the sector, and support that does not disappear when young people need it most.
If our young people are to genuinely benefit from the creation of opportunities, the metric for success will not just be the number of jobs or apprenticeships announced. It will be whether young people can actually reach those opportunities, make sense of them, and stay supported long enough to move forward into them.
Young H&F looks forward to share the forthcoming YIN and WLA-commissioned Youth Employability Report in the coming weeks, which will offer fresh insight into the evolving youth employment landscape.his research was made possible with support from the Greater London Authority (GLA), through its funding of the Youth Integration Network.