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Youth Inquiry


We were charged by Commissioners and key sponsors – DWP, the Welsh Government and the Scottish Government – to investigate the kind of activities, including improved education / employer engagement that most effectively support young people into employment, particularly those who are likely to be furthest from the labour market.

The Youth Inquiry focused on three key questions:

  • Who and where are the young (16-24) unemployed/inactive?
  • What works from an employer perspective in employing young people?
  • How well are the current initiatives aimed at employers working?

There were a number of strands of work to the inquiry.

  • Analysis of who and where the young unemployed are and the employer’s perspective on recruiting young people. This involved a cross-sectional and time-series analysis as well as extensive analysis of the National Employer Skills Survey for England (NESS).
  • ‘How well are the current initiatives aimed at employers working?’. For this piece of work we interviewed a number of Commissioner Companies and worked with Jobcentre Plus to engage in feedback with a large number of employers who were currently using these government initiatives.


A final report (PDF, 523 Kb)  and evidence base (PDF, 860 Kb)  were produced.

 

Commissioner comments

Valerie Todd
Valerie Todd, UKCES Commissioner, talks to Ethos Journal about the Youth Inquiry report and her concerns that for many young people, a career is becoming an aspiration rather than a reality.

Read the article