TUC response to Work and Pensions Select Committee Inquiry - Youth employment, education and training
The TUC brings together more than 5.5 million working people who belong to our 47 member unions. We support trade unions to grow and thrive, and we stand up for everyone who works for a living. Every day, we campaign for more and better jobs, and a more equal, more prosperous country.
The TUC welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to this call for evidence. Trade unions have a long tradition of campaigning to bring down worklessness and ensure more quality jobs for young people, including involvement in the design of the successful Future Jobs Fund under the previous Labour government and in supporting apprentices and vocational training. It is no coincidence that many of the apprenticeship programmes with the greatest demand are those where unions have negotiated a high-quality apprenticeship offer that is open to all.
The youth NEET (not in education, employment and training) crisis has been years in the making and is now being exacerbated by slow economic growth. Turning round the drivers will take time, but we need urgent action now - for the generation who have already been let down and the children who are already coming next.
Our submission shows that rising rates are a result of structural failures in the labour market – including persistent regional economic inequalities – and cuts to education, health and social security systems. Young people want to work – but they have been let down by past government failures. Today’s NEET young people face a combination of weak labour market demand, poor quality jobs, disrupted education pathways, including a lack of apprenticeship opportunities and inadequate public services such as mental health and youth services – undermined by over a decade of sustained underinvestment.
TUC analysis shows whilst there has been a rise in the number of young people who are economically inactive over the past two years, the vast majority of this rise (84 per cent) is people who want to work. 1
We need both immediate support for the pandemic generation, and a comprehensive cross-government plan to turn around wider drivers of the NEET crisis. A successful response must focus on creating quality, paid work and apprenticeship opportunities, alongside sustained investment in skills, education, health and social security.
The TUC has adopted the social model of disability. The social model of disability focuses on the ways in which society is organised, and the social and institutional barriers which restrict disabled people’s opportunities. The social model sees the person first and argues that the barriers they face, in combination with their impairments, are what disables them. Barriers can make it impossible or very difficult to access jobs, buildings or services. Removing the barriers is the best way to include millions of disabled people in our society. In this response, we have considered the challenged faced by disabled young people through this lens.
Download the full report here (PDF)
- 1 Unpublished TUC 2025 analysis
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