Trade bodies the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and UKHospitality have welcomed a major youth employment drive unveiled by the government today (16 March).
Backed by a £1bn investment, the employment drive is expected to create 200,000 jobs for young people, alongside “the biggest transformation of apprenticeships in a decade”, the Department for Work and Pensions said.
It comes as apprenticeships starts among young people are down 40% in the past decade, and almost one million young people are not earning or learning – a rise of 248,000 between 2021 and 2024.
Announced in a speech by work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden, a “new deal” for young people will include a new Youth Jobs Grant. This will see businesses receiving £3,000 for every young person they hire aged 18 to 24 who has been on universal credit and looking for work for six months. It is expected to support 60,000 young people over three years.
UKHospitality chair Kate Nicholls said the Youth Jobs Grant is modelled on proposals submitted by the hospitality trade group, adding that she is “pleased this has been taken forward”.
“Acting as the equivalent to an employer NICs holiday for businesses employing young people, the grant helps to address a major cost challenge for hospitality businesses,” she explained.
Alongside this, there will be an expansion of the Jobs Guarantee to a wider age range, from 18-21 to 18-24, to create more than 35,000 extra subsidised jobs. This brings the total to be supported through the scheme to over 90,000 in the next three years.
The deal will see an Apprenticeship Incentive of £2,000 for each new employee aged 16 to 24 taken on by an SME. As part of wider reforms, this looks to drive progress to the government’s target of creating 50,000 more apprenticeships.
There will also be further reforms to the Growth and Skills Levy to “prioritise young apprentices, secure value for money and give school and college leavers more opportunities than ever to build careers in cutting-edge industries”, the department added.
BRC CEO Helen Dickinson said that with youth unemployment at “crisis point”, it is “great to see government’s commitment to getting more young people into work with the expansion of the Youth Guarantee and the new Youth Jobs Grant”.
“Foundation apprenticeships for retail could also be a game-changer but only if developed in true partnership with the industry.”
However, she noted that the government “risks undermining its own ambition to tackle youth unemployment through other policies”.
“The Employment Rights Act must work with, not against, opportunities for young people. Without a joined-up approach, well-intentioned initiatives will lose their impact,” she explained.
No comments yet