Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to promote youth employment in the IT sector.

With over one million young people not in education, employment and training, this Government will not leave an entire generation of young people behind. The Government is investing an additional £2.5 billion over the next three years into the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy. This investment will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn.

This includes an expanded network of Youth Hubs, earlier and more intensive support in Jobs Centres through the new Youth Guarantee Gateway, additional work experience and training opportunities, a £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant and a fully funded six-month job for long-term unemployed 18–24-year-olds.

Alongside this. DWP is working closely with national IT and digital employers to promote youth employment. Through our Strategic Relationship Team we are encouraging the creation of accessible entry-level roles, supporting more skills-based recruitment practices and co-designing Sector-based Work Academy Programmes aligned to industry needs.

We are also supporting young people to access pathways into digital careers through a range of established provision, including digital bootcamps, apprenticeships, traineeships and work experience. This includes a range of apprenticeship standards available such as the level 2 Software and Data foundation apprenticeship, level 3 Digital Support Technician and level 5 Data Engineer.

More widely, to support our ambition of 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships we are introducing a £2,000 hiring payment, and fully funding apprenticeship training, for non-levy paying employers (typically SMEs) that recruit 16-24-year-old apprentices.

Job Centres working with employers and training providers, also support young people to develop digital skills for job search, including building confidence in navigating online recruitment processes and using digital tools, such as AI, to improve CVs, applications and interview preparation.

We also recognise the crisis of participation that Alan Milburn has so clearly laid out in his interim report. We will use this interim report to continue to build our reforms and look forward to final recommendations in the Autumn.