After he lost his job at a design studio in 2008, owing in part to health problems, Jimmy Gregory, from Leeds, spent two years unemployed, relying on government benefits. The Prince’s Trust, a charity, came to his rescue, and provided guidance on how to draft a business plan through a workshop and a year of follow-up support, followed by a £2,500 loan to start his own design studio. Today, Mr Gregory, 28 years old, is doing well enough to offer freelance work to other young people introduced through the Trust.

Like a number of other charities, the Trust seeks to help "the most disadvantaged, the most marginalised, the most vulnerable young people—those out of work for six months or more," says Paul Brown, the director of marketing and communications. In 2013 the Prince’s Trust helped more than 58,000 young people, with 77% going into education, employment or training. “People we talk to are very keen to improve their prospects,” says Mr Gregory, who is a job ambassador for the charity. “But sometimes they feel there’s not enough support out there or they’re not aware of the support out there. I make sure they know the support that’s available to them.” Charities alone, however, cannot tackle youth unemployment in the UK, where currently 15% of 16-24-year-olds are not in employment, education or training. 

Working together

In light of persistently high youth unemployment rates, UK policymakers are putting more emphasis on training and work programmes—and intensifying co-operation with the private sector to implement them. The goal is to get 50% of young people to go “either to university or into apprenticeships, depending on what’s right for them,” says Matthew Hancock MP, minister of state for skills and enterprise. And the government wants to shift the focus from exam results to “the destination”—whether university, apprenticeships or jobs, he says. To achieve that, there needs to be greater co-ordination and communication between employers and the education system, to direct people to where jobs are likely to be, according to Tony Dolphin, the associate director for economic policy at the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Over the past three years the number of apprentices has nearly doubled, to more than 510,000 in 2012/13, but there has been criticism that apprenticeships can be low quality, too short in duration and ineffectual in imparting knowledge and skills. Policymakers are now taking action to address these shortcomings.

Under the Trailblazers project, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is inviting companies to redefine the standards of skills that apprentices are required to learn under the country's 250 apprenticeship frameworks. In the initial round, the government is set to publish in March standards put forward by companies from eight sectors, including aerospace and financial services, with apprenticeships starting under the new standards at the end of 2014. Improving apprenticeships will help young people gain the kind of experience needed to succeed in the UK’s current job market, and will encourage employers to take part as they have a clearer understanding of what they can expect in return for their participation. 

Barclays Bank has its own apprenticeship programme, but it is also working with the government to help develop apprenticeship policy under the Trailblazers project. “At the moment, there’s no apprenticeship framework for relationship banking,” says Mike Thompson, the head of Barclays’ Employability and Early Career Programmes, referring to banking services for high net worth customers. “We’re helping to create a new framework in relationship banking, as an alternative to a degree programme.”
Some companies, such as PwC, have set up apprenticeships under the Employer Ownership of Skills pilot launched by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, a public body made up of industry and society leaders. “Some very good results have come out of the pilot,” says Lizzie Crowley, a senior researcher at the Work Foundation, a London-based think-tank. But she adds that such projects must be expanded to have impact. 

The government’s flagship, £1bn youth job programme, the Youth Contract, has not been as well received. Launched by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in 2012, the programme, in part, offers employers wage incentives worth up to £2,275 for each young person they hire for apprenticeships or jobs. Uptake by employers in the first year was “miniscule”, says Ms Crowley, who attributes this partly to ineffective advertising. Businesses are also worried about local implementation. “We want to see more local ownership—local bodies, schools, enterprises forming partnerships to design programmes at the local level,” says Lena Levy, the head of labour market policy at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), a lobbying group.

Interest among young people has also been weak, says University of Warwick Professor Sue Maguire, who is helping the government evaluate certain Youth Contract services. Many young people get referred to the Youth Contract or the Work Programme—a welfare-to-work service that is mandatory for over 18s on long-term benefits—through Jobcentre Plus sites. But both job centres and the Work Programme also service adults, while many young people “need an agency that is young person-focused,” Ms Maguire says.

There are also a number of non-profit organisations lending a helping hand in tackling the UK’s youth unemployment. Business in the Community (BITC), for example, which promotes corporate social responsibility, is connecting its member companies—mostly multinationals—directly with young people. Its Work Inspiration programme has placed young people in work experience in some 600 companies, including Capgemini, a technology services company. Christine Hodgson, Capgemini’s UK chairman, has also involved its clients in developing work experiences, by creating workshops that allow young people to make a contribution to tackling a live client issue. 

Whitbread Group, a hospitality chain and BITC member, has helped to spearhead "Big Conversations" that bring young people and employers together to create more job opportunities in the hospitality sector. Patrick Dempsey, the managing director of Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants, says that he would like to see more government support for the programme, which currently is being organised and funded by major groups such as Compass Hotels Limited and Marriott, in addition to Whitbread. “We’d like to create a template that people can follow—not just big companies, but smaller companies,” he says, noting that there are some 250,000 hospitality establishments across the UK. 

Spoilt for choice
As part of the government’s efforts to increase jobs, Mr Hancock says, policymakers are trying to make it easier for businesses to employ young people, for example by relaxing or clarifying regulations. But some businesses find it hard to navigate the plethora of agencies (DWP, BIS and the Department for Education) and policies related to youth unemployment. 

“There is significant activity out of government, but it’s not joined up,” says Graham Bann, the executive director for talent and skills at BITC. Ms Levy says that the CBI would like to see the government set up a “one-stop shop for businesses”. The UK government needs to do more by way of streamlining the different programmes and services to make it easier on employers looking to hire.  

Mr Hancock says that the government is “trying to simplify where appropriate”, citing BIS’s new traineeships, which bring under one, flexible umbrella a number of programmes aimed at better preparing young people for work.

Another obstacle remains, however. Many businesses do not consider hiring through Jobcentre sites, even though, as Mr Bann says, “people who go to job centres include bright young people”. This is an attitude that BITC is trying to change. The organisation has seconded staff to Jobcentre Plus sites to alter the way companies think about hiring through the government job services programmes. 

Making the private sector feel confident in recruiting through public programmes will be crucial to the government’s success in tackling youth unemployment. “We want to improve supply [of jobs] and strengthen the demand [worker] side, and the private sector is absolutely mission critical,” Mr Hancock says. “We need funding from the private sector but also the genuine experience of work. Knowledge, skills and behaviour—employers can deliver all three.”