Osborne must stop ‘youth unemployment ‘crisis’

George Osborne is expected to announce a series of measures on spending and taxation in his statement to the Commons on Monday.

The Work Foundationwants a ‘gold standard’ for apprenticeships and an extension of the pilot Trailblazer scheme, with a focus on developing apprenticeships in service sectors including health and social care, business administration and customer services.

It has also called for properly resourced careers advice and a £50 million fund to pilot innovative approaches and for the reinstatement of the statutory requirement for schools to provide work experience opportunities for young people aged 14 to 16.

Lizzie Crowley, head of youth unemployment programmes at The Work Foundation, said: “The Autumn Statement takes place against the general backdrop of falling unemployment and strengthening economic growth, yet the youth unemployment crisis shows no sign of abating.

“The number of unemployed young people in the UKstands at almost one million and, unlike general unemployment figures, this number has hardly fallen since the start of the recovery.

“The Chancellor must take action to reduce some of the key barriers which young people face in today’s already competitive labour market.

“Our recommendations on apprenticeships, careers advice, transport barriers and an improved local provision of services are all designed to ensure that the government addresses the long-term structural problems and that young people aren’t left behind in the economic recovery."

The Work Foundationis calling for guaranteed concessionary fares for young people who have been unemployed for 12 months or more, both during their work search and for their first month in employment.

It has also suggested local approaches that tackle youth unemployment by pooling the remaining Youth Contract monies and making them available for areas to bid for develop local approaches to tackling youth unemployment.