Youth Unemployment

Lord Bailey of Paddington Excerpts

Tuesday 20th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Lord makes an enormously important point. It is sometimes at the point that young people finish school that they are lost to education or employment. That is why we will also put greater responsibilities on to schools to ensure the destinations of their pupils. We will deliver an automatic guarantee and automatic enrolment for young people into a college, and we will improve the risk of NEET indicators to identify earlier those young people who might end up not earning or learning.

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

My Lords, given that the poorest families in this country cannot afford for their children to do endless training courses, what work is being done to make sure these lead to full-time, proper employment that pays those families who are sending their young people to endless government training courses?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The training courses that will be provided as part of the youth guarantee will not be charged for, and neither will the improved training that we will provide post-16 or apprenticeships, where young people will be earning at the same time as they are learning. If the noble Lord is making a point about the cost of living pressures on young people then I wholly accept that, but our responsibility is to ensure that those young people, through the new, free opportunities provided by the youth guarantee, are set off on a life that will enable them to build a good and high income for themselves and their families.

Youth Guarantee Scheme: Evaluation

Lord Bailey of Paddington Excerpts

Tuesday 13th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

We need employers to recognise the benefits that providing opportunities for young people can bring, whether through placements or taking young people on as apprentices, or through giving them opportunities through the jobs guarantee. That is why we are working closely with employers and the representatives of employers. It is why, for example, with respect to the jobs guarantee, we will provide full funding for employers to take young people on at the national minimum wage for 25 hours a week. It is why, when it comes to apprenticeships, we already provide a national insurance contribution break for young people and, in the case of foundation apprenticeships, £2,000 for the employer to take on those young people.

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

My Lords, as I am sure the Minister is aware, most young people are looking for permanent employment. What proportion of young people will be moving on into permanent employment? Will the Government be tracking the quality of that employment—namely, salary and progression?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

It will certainly be the case that in the evaluation we will want to track how many young people are able to move into permanent employment. I agree with the noble Lord about that. Evaluations of job support schemes in the past have suggested that there is a positive movement into long-term employment from these types of schemes.

Jobs Market

Lord Bailey of Paddington Excerpts

Thursday 13th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, I do not often say it, but I know absolutely nothing about that, so I will take it back to my department and somebody will write to the noble Lord.

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

My Lords, 111,000 fewer young people are employed than at the beginning of the year. With the rise in NI and the rise in minimum wage, many employers say that they cannot afford to employ young people. What work are the Government doing to make sure that our young people have a future in employment and not on welfare?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

I am grateful for that question; I know that it is something that the noble Lord cares very much about. We are doing a lot for young people. This is what is so exciting about what is happening. We have a youth guarantee, but my boss as Secretary of State has also made it clear that if an eligible young person has been on universal credit for 18 months, we will create a guaranteed job for them to support them in getting back into a job and transitioning into work. We need to move to a point where every young person out there is either earning, learning or preparing themselves to do one or the other. I am particularly worried about the growing number of young people who are not in education, employment or training, particularly on health grounds or because for some reason they are outside the labour market altogether. The noble Lord may have heard that my Secretary of State has asked Alan Milburn to look specifically at an inquiry to find out what is going on with those young people. We are already doing huge amounts in this area, but we need to address work specifically on that. I am looking forward to finding out what he has to say.