Almost 1m Young People Not In Education, Employment Or Training

Almost 1 million young people are not in school, work or training, according to official figures which underline the extent to which the economic slowdown is hurting school-leavers.

One in six 16- to 24-year-olds was a "neet" (not in education, employment or training) in the last three months of 2011, according to statistics published by the Department for Education (pdf).

The figures show that while the proportion of 16- to 18-year-olds who were out of school or training has remained stable year-on-year, there has been a big drop in the employment rate for school-leavers.

Tony Dolphin, chief economist with the Institute for Public Policy Research, said: "Firms haven't reacted [to the downturn] by upping the number of redundancies. What they have done is hesitate in taking on new workers. Older people who are in jobs are keeping them – young people looking for jobs are not getting them."

The figures show that 958,000 young people aged 16-24 were considered to be neet in the fourth quarter of 2011. For the same period in 2010, the figure was 939,000. A total of 178,000 people aged 16-18 were neet in the last quarter of 2011.

A government spokesman said it was investing almost £1bn over the next three years to encourage young people into education, training and jobs.

"The number of young people who are not in education, employment or training has been too high for too long – we are determined to bring the numbers down," he said.

"We are making sure that young people have the skills they need to get ready for work – creating the biggest apprenticeships programme our country has ever seen and overhauling vocational education, so all employers can be confident about the rigour of our qualifications."

Earlier this week, Nick Clegg announced a £126m scheme to get 16- to 17-year-olds back into employment or education.

Under the initiative, which is part of the government's "youth contract" scheme, charities and businesses will be invited to bid for contracts worth up to £2,200 to take on young people.

At least 55,000 neets – those who have no GCSEs at grades C or above – are expected to benefit.

Dolphin said: "Last autumn, the government announced plans for a new 'youth contract' including 160,000 job subsidies and an extra 20,000 apprenticeships. It is a policy yet to be implemented. Assuming there is no slippage, the youth contract will come on stream in April, more than a year after the abolition of the future jobs fund and the education maintenance allowance (EMA).

"Today's neet figures show just how many young people have struggled to find work or access training during that period of policy vacuum."

The figures prompted renewed criticism of the government's decision to scrap the EMA, which was aimed at students in households earning less than £21,000 a year. It was replaced with a bursary fund targeted at the poorest students.

James Mills, head of the Save EMA campaign, said: "By scrapping EMA this government is creating a lost generation of young people and these figures are proof that there is now a growing invisible army of teenagers who have been cut loose."

Barnardo's deputy chief executive, Jane Stacey, said: "Whilst it is encouraging that the government is seeking to provide more support to get young people earning and learning, resources also need to be focused on helping them avoid becoming neet in the first place.

"A recent Barnardo's report found that since the replacement of the EMA with the bursary fund, some students are now being forced to skip meals just to afford the bus to college. More investment is needed to ensure that students from poorer backgrounds can actually afford to stay on in education and training."

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