The Young People and Work: Interim Report has been released, detailing nearly a million young people out of work and the struggles they face
The report highlights a growing discrepancy between young construction workers’ abilities and what the workplace can offer them.
The report draws on evidence from both young NEETS (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) and employers.
The construction industry is facing several issues with employment, and estimates that by 2029, 240,000 additional workers will be needed, and is struggling to get young people to ‘cross the line’ from trainee to career, as per the CIOB’s Miruna Leitoiu, writing for PBC Today in March.
“A system that sees them but does not help”
The interim report examines why the number of unemployed young people remains high across the country, and was commissioned by the Department for Work & Pensions.
The Rt Hon Alan Milburn, author of the report, wrote the following: “I talked to young people and heard them say the same story in different ways: a system that sees them but does not help them, that assesses them but does not support them, that refers them but does not follow them. I heard from a young man where I grew up in Newcastle’s west end who dropped out of school in his early teens, then applied for dozens of jobs and pulled himself up by his bootstraps to get qualified as a community worker so he could help other young people succeed where he had been failed. His story was not unusual. It is not the story that is sometimes told of a soft generation who lack the appetite to get a job. The story I heard most often was of endeavour, of trying, of a desire to work.
He continues: “I heard from employers, large and small, across hospitality, retail, construction, social care and professional services. They are not hostile to young people. Many are desperate to hire them. What they described was a growing gap between what the workplace demands from day one and what a significant proportion of young applicants are equipped to provide. This gap is not the result of laziness; but of anxiety, of inexperience, of a system that may have given them qualifications, but not the chance to learn how a workplace works before being expected to perform in one. One large employer told me it had found it necessary to employ a full-time social worker to support younger staff. For smaller firms, hiring an inexperienced young worker has become a bet many cannot afford to take.”
Can the construction industry solve the crisis?
The National Federation of Builders chief executive, Richard Beresford, has reacted to this report and highlights the industry’s potential to play a large role in aiding NEETs: “In construction, the Government has a perfect example of how Alan Milburn’s findings play out in practice and why NEETs have been let down.
“This is because despite the sector having high wages, the education system does not view it as a career pathway young people should be aspiring to while constructors continue to be taxed and regulated to the point where they cannot afford to take on new learners.”
Rico Wojtulewicz, director of policy and market insight at the NFB, added: “The NEET issue is not all that complicated. it is about careers that learners can access. Unfortunately, the UK has spent decades devaluing the link between career path and employer, while taxing employers to fund training for careers that are not there.
“We just need to look back to understand this. In the 1980’s, when SMEs built around 40% of homes, the UK trained more bricklayers and carpenters than we do all construction apprentices today, a period where SMEs build around 9% of homes. This is why, when the Government announced an intent to support SME housebuilders with the creation of a medium sized site of 10 to 49 homes, industry rejoiced – particularly as it did so in the knowledge that 8 in 10 construction apprentices were trained by SMEs.
“If we further the conversation, colleges often cite oversubscription of construction courses, while bemoaning a lack of businesses able to offer vocational training. A lack of SME businesses. Whatever the industry, if we want to help NEETs, we must ensure that our career creating employers are solvent enough to train and retain them.”
The full interim report can be read here. The report is the first phase of the investigation and is for information gathering, so no solutions have yet been proposed.
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