Guaranteed opportunity for young people

I’ve written before about the need to deliver opportunities for young people in our community. This is an area filled with talented, ambitious young people keen to get on in life who just need a helping hand to kickstart their careers. But in recent years, they just haven’t gotten one.

You hear about it when you talk to them, with so many thinking they have to leave home to get skills and find good jobs, and you see it in the statistics. In June 2024, there were nearly a million young people not in education, employment or training, up from 673,000 in 2021.

We know that being out of work at a young age can cost over £1 million in lost earnings over a lifetime, so we should call the current situation what it is: a broken system that fails young people.

I refuse to stand by and do nothing to fix a system that is characterised by wasted talent, hopelessness and a lack of opportunity for one in eight young people.

That’s why I'm delighted the Government is expanding our Youth Guarantee. Backed by £820 million in funding, the Youth Guarantee will fundamentally transform support for young people who aren’t earning or learning, ensuring they are given a fair chance to succeed and real opportunities they can grasp.

The funding will create 350,000 new workplace opportunities designed to support young people into employment in sectors including construction, health and social care and hospitality. This will be vital to getting young people’s foot in the door and helping them develop on the job skills and employer networks.

We are introducing a Youth Guarantee Gateway, which over the next three years will offer nearly 900,000 16–24-year-olds a dedicated session, followed by four weeks of additional intensive support with a work coach. This new gateway will identify specific local opportunities for each person and ensure that young people are supported to take up work, training or learning opportunities.

We are also investing in new Youth Hubs across local communities, a one stop shop for life-changing support to young people, such as CV advice, skills training, mental health support, housing advice and careers guidance.

This Government is also providing a Jobs Guarantee. Those 18-21-year-olds on Universal Credit who have been searching for work for 18 months or more will be provided with six months of employment, helping them into the workplace.

This support will help renew the social contract with young people, ensuring that this opportunity is matched by responsibility. There is an expectation that young people will take up the opportunities they are offered, and sanctions could be applied for those who don't engage with support without good reason.

This investment will provide a springboard to a better future for close to a million young people, giving them the chance to gain crucial skills and support to find a job with long term prospects.

Gone are the days in which young people are written off before they have the chance to succeed.

They have dreams and talent, and I am proud to be part of a Government that believes in them as much as they believe in themselves.