Charity seeks 5 year on Neets

Education and employment charity Impetus-PEF said it is “essential” that the government creates a five-year plan to help young people navigate their journey from school into further education, employment or training.

They are calling for:

• greater emphasis on careers education in school as well as more co-ordinated and focused careers guidance post-education
• school-to-work transitions to be improved by making schools responsible for the post-16 destinations of their pupils
• government-funded apprenticeships to be better focused on young people with 2/3 reserved for under 25-year-olds by 2020
• every Jobcentre Plus in England and Wales to employ specialist youth advisers to offer further support
• LAs to be “incentivised” to make an impact (statistics show wide variation in success)

Daniela Barone Soares, chief executive of Impetus-PEF, said youth employment and training policy currently “falls between the cracks of different government departments. It is essential that the key ministers in this new cabinet work together to deliver a cross-departmental strategy to help disadvantaged school leavers to successfully move forward with their careers”.