With support from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, earlier this year I undertook a traveling fellowship to Australia looking at what we could learn about how they prepare young people for the world of work. Historically the Australian system of education and vocational training was modelled on that in the UK but, whilst we had a significant dip in Apprenticeship numbers during the 80s and 90s, their buoyant economy has seen considerable growth and innovation.

Here are seven lessons we could learn from our Australian counterparts:

1. We  should make employer’s needs more central to the vocational training and Apprenticeship system. In Australia although some money still goes to the training provider, most of the financial support for Apprentices is aimed at employers. As recommended in the Richard Review, the bulk of skills funding in the UK should go to employers, so that they can then invest in the training provider of their choice.

2. We  should use other financial incentives sparing and to encourage the employment of disadvantaged groups, including 16/17 year olds, young people with disabilities and, in some professions, young people of underrepresented gender/ethnicity. In Australia there is a complicated system of financial support, which at first sight appears very attractive (http://www.australianapprenticeships.gov.au/).  However, over time they have come to be seen as entitlements and a review by Deloitte seemed to show that they had very little incentivising power.

3. We should develop the system of group training organisations, so that in industries where there is a high turnover of employees, e.g. construction,  Apprentices can be passed between host companies more easily.  In Australia, about 10% of Apprentices are now employed through a group training organisation (http://www.grouptraining.com.au/).  They provide a particularly attractive option for employers who find it difficult to add additional permanent employees to their headcount or who simply want more support.

4. Progression planning should begin much earlier, with the first conversations about the world of work starting in primary school and occurring regularly thereafter. By the time young people enter Key Stage 4, they should have clear post-16 pathways mapped out and be clear how to get there. In Australia they ensure this by establishing links between schools and businesses, so that young people and teachers have access to industry knowledge. In the UK, all young people, and particularly those who come from workless families, need to have access to engagement opportunities with employees, work skills training and workplace experiences.

5. We should provide more support for young people to stay in school and improve their behaviour and attendance. In Australia I saw the work of the Beacon Foundation (http://beaconfoundation.com.au/), which aims to help young people make informed, high aspiration decisions about their future pathways. High quality pastoral support from a school-based tutor/mentor, backed up by life skills development and access to a network of specialist support, is the best way of ensuring all young people leave with the best possible achievements.

6. We should explore the options for School/College-Based Apprenticeships, perhaps within a ‘TechBacc’ framework, so that young people are able to start high quality work-related learning earlier. Although the UK’s Young Apprenticeship programme was stopped following the recommendations of the Wolf Review, in some Australian states it has provided a high quality alternative route to employment. It may also enable young people to tap into the growing part-time job market and, if paid, offset recent reductions in financial support for 16-19 year olds.

7. The proposed new system of Traineeships should provide high quality pre-Apprenticeship training for young people who are not yet work-ready.    The current foundation learning offer should be enriched to be more like the  Australian approach, which includes qualifications more directly leading into Apprenticeship opportunities and some real, paid work experience.

Kevin Munday is the ThinkForward Programme Development Manager at Private Equity Foundation.

The latest figures out today show that there has been a slight fall in the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).  However, now is not the time to be complacent, the figures are still very high.  Today we launch a small scale piece of research which examines what would improve the employment rate for young people.  We would love to hear from others about your experiences of what steps need to be taken to help, particularly the most vunerable young people into secure sustained employment.

Download the full report here

The report was undertaken pro bono for PEF and examines what would improve the employment rate of young people, and particularly within small and medium enterprises. It recognises the practical issues faced by education providers and employers alike in the context of economic stringency, and offers pragmatic recommendations to improve the supply of suitably qualified young people to the workplace.

It considers that both education providers and businesses alike fail to fully understand on a regular basis ‘what is really needed’ in order for young people to successfully gain employment. Despite sincere motives, some employers are poorly informed about what schools actually achieve; some schools are poorly informed about what prospective employers are looking for.

The report recommends that the drive for achieving effective progression to work is the primary responsibility of schools and colleges and that:

• Government should be clearer to schools that they have the option to retain work experience for 14-16 year olds
• OfSTED should include a specific focus the effectiveness of the preparation made by schools for its students to succeed in the workplace, and on the scope and impact of their liaison with their local business community.
• The PEF ThinkForward model of a ‘consistent professional ‘should be applied to support those vulnerable young people who are looking for employment
• Local authorities should be reminded of their opportunities to create employment for young people through their procurement practices

Alan Lazell is a freelance education professional. He has extensive senior management experience at divisional director level in a local authority, with a particular emphasis upon 14-19 issues.

The Skills Minister, Matthew Hancock, has announced plans for a new Traineeship programme to provide young people with the skills, attitudes and experience to secure and sustain employment through ‘on the job’ training.

The Private Equity Foundation welcomes the proposal for Traineeships as a clearly defined alternative route to work for young people. It implements many of the key recommendations in the Wolf Report on vocational education and Richard Review on Apprenticeships , and delivers on the commitments in the Coalition Agreement to work pairing.

We submitted the following response to the consultation to support the development of the Traineeship delivery and funding model, in collaboration with our partner charities, Workingrite, ThinkForward and Tomorrow’s people, and our business network. As an intermediary, we are in a unique position to be able to represent the voice of both providers and employers, as well as young people themselves.

Read the full submission

Our key recommendations to maximise the success of Traineeships can be summarised as follows:

• Build on what works – Local as well as national providers and employers with a track record in delivering core components of Traineeships (work placements, work skills training and mentoring) should be involved in designing and developing the Traineeship programme.
• Start early – Research has shown that young people would benefit from access to the world of work before embarking on a traineeship to be successful, as well as high quality advice at school.  For those that are disaffected, the Traineeship programme needs to encourage providers to prepare and motivate young people at 14 to 16 years so that they do not move further away from the job market.
• Work placements are key – Placements that provide an authentic experience of the world of work should be the core component of Traineeships.
• Training needs to be personalised and relevant – Traineeships should leave trainees with skills that are in demand by employers in the local labour market. Any training needs to be personalised to the young person’s needs and learning style, and introduced at a pace and quantity in line with the young person’s development as an employee.
• Transparent and accessible funding model – Funding should be directly accessible to all providers, including successful small, local providers in the voluntary sector, and reflect the level of quality needed to deliver the programme successfully.
• No financial barriers for young people – The Traineeship model will not work if there is no allowance paid to the young trainee. There should be a government contribution towards the young people’s training allowance – but not all the costs. We believe there is      merit in exploring a model whereby the training allowance paid to each young person is a funding split between government and business.

We are setting up a cross-sector roundtable in the upcoming weeks. Please get in touch with us if you are interested in joining us. Together we can shape a successful Traineeship programme and network of providers and employers that delivers positive outcomes for young people.

Email: info@privateequityfoundation.org for more informati0n.

Today marks an extremely exciting stage in our development; we have announced our intention to merge with Impetus Trust. Let me tell you why I think this is so important and why it will lead to a greater number of young people being given more opportunities to thrive.

Firstly, some background.  According to today’s report by the Work Foundation (sponsored by PEF), the UK has experienced the fastest rise in youth unemployment of any country in the G8 since the start of the recession. It now has the third worst levels in the OECD, with only Spain and Greece experiencing higher levels. As we face the prospect of a triple dip recession, the outlook for school and college leavers remains extremely bleak.

These stark facts frame PEF’s work and drive our determination to make a difference to young people whose future offers little more hope than depression, the dole queue and debt. They also provide the context for our proposed merger.

Both organisations use venture philanthropy techniques to create social change and together, are helping well over half a million people. But, both are also ambitious to contribute much more. At a time when charities are experiencing massive demand for their services, we need to maximise our ability to support them. By combining our 16 years’ experience of enabling charity effectiveness and expansion, we will facilitate our own scale up and increase our capacity to turnaround many more young lives.

Once the merger is complete, Impetus – The Private Equity Foundation, as the new organisation will be known, will have the flexibility to commit even greater pro bono business skills and management expertise, alongside funding, to those charities or social enterprises ready to become social game changers, while still backing a wider portfolio of organisations that show potential.

The special focus will build on PEF’s work to date, equipping children and young people with the characteristics, education, skills, and opportunities to secure training or work and lead independent lives.

I will be working with the team during the transition period but after an incredible six years at PEF I will be handing over the reins to Daniela Barone Soares, currently CEO of Impetus who will be the new CEO of Impetus – The Private Equity Foundation.  I look forward to watching its progress in her very capable hands.

As 2012 draws to a close many of us will start to reflect on the successes and good feeling generated by the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We will start to think about the coming year with a renewed sense of optimism and even make resolutions, that we may or may not struggle to keep and which we anticipate will make a difference to how 2013 unfolds.

This year has seen the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) stay resolutely above the one million mark.  Through our work with charities focused on helping young people reach their full potential PEF is resolved to make a difference.  So often young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds are unable to access the opportunities which could help ensure positive pathways into employment, we are determined to ensure that they do.  However the responsibility lies not only with organisations like PEF.  Each of us can play our part to ensure the NEET figures don’t continue to rise in 2013.

According to the European Foundation for Improvement of Living and Working Conditions in their report launched in November 2012 which looks at the NEETS population across the EU; the UK has the second highest number of NEET’s in Europe.  Clearly there is more we can learn from our European neighbours, such as Youth Guarantee Initiatives, Second Chance Schools, and Employer incentives; all of which are having a positive impact on the numbers of NEET young people in other member states.  Perhaps the suggestion by Vince Cable that all 18 year olds would be encouraged and supported to ‘learn or earn’ i.e. study or work, as they do in Australia, rather than join the increasing numbers of young people who are unemployed is one way forward, but it is clear we all have a responsibility to tackle this issue, it’s bigger than a single organisation or government can fix and too important to ignore.

Each of us can make a difference to the positive transitions into employment that young people need to make if they are to be successful in their adult life and for many this is about having the right opportunities. As 2012 draws to a close, let’s all consider what we can to do to enable young people to have and make the most of these opportunities.   Could you contact your local school and offer to speak to students about your work or business, invite a group of students to visit your work place or maybe even provide a work experience opportunity for one or two young people?  Do you know a young person who is interested in a particular career?  Can you help connect them to people working in that industry?

Let 2013 be the year that all of us resolve to play our part and make a difference to the lives of young people in our communities.

Carol Jackson

Portfolio Manager, Private Equity Foundation

This morning we found out that 1,027,000 16 to 24 year olds (17% of the cohort) are currently not in education, employment or training (NEET) in England alone.  That’s 1,027,000 young lives put on hold. What a waste. This is the fourth year running that the Third Quarter NEET statistics have remained stubbornly above the one million mark.

The situation can’t be blamed entirely on the recession. The number of young people not in education, employment or training began to rise in the early 2000s. However, there is hope. Long-term programmes geared to overcoming the disadvantage and disaffection which too often lead to disengagement can be effective. Our own ThinkForward intervention uses Super Coaches to work with a young person from age 14 through to 19, when they secure their first job.

Another key to ThinkForward’s success has been building bridges between schools and the workplace. Opportunities as simple as having a mentor from a supporting business, to work shadowing and office visits can transform a young person’s aspirations and ultimately attainment.

Youth unemployment is at record levels and the truth is that this is not purely a result of the recession or austerity measures; in fact, youth unemployment has been rising since the early 2000s.  If we are to stop this trend and fix the deeper structural issues surrounding youth unemployment we need to focus our attention on another scandal in our communities: the large number of young people who are failing to make a successful transition from school into the world of work. Many young people are being let down. They are leaving school without the skills or experience employers are looking for and ultimately, this is fuelling an even greater youth unemployment crisis.

Through our programme called ThinkForward, which places super coaches in schools who work with young people most at risk of not making a successful transition into work, we have learnt that there is no single answer or easy fix. But there are some simple things which can be done to help young people navigate their way from education into the labour market.

1. Start young – from the age of 14 years when young people are making GCSE decisions they need information about the types of jobs in their local area and guidance on the skills, experience and qualifications required for entry into these jobs. They also need space to discuss their future career goals and aspirations with teachers, mentors and professionals who will inspire them to succeed.

2. Contact with employers – research by the Education and Employers task force found that young people who recalled ‘four or more employer contacts’ were five times less likely to be NEET. The tragedy is that only 7% of those questioned recalled four such activities taking place. Surely, those of us who who work in  schools, voluntary organisations and the business community could together provide opportunities for young people to have meaningful experiences of work. As we have found through ThinkForward, this can include activities as simple as visiting a workplace or having a local business leader speak at a school to more involved activities such as having a dedicated mentor or completing a work experience placement.

3. Responsibility for post-sixteen destinations – the pressures schools face to achieve GCSE results coupled with recent changes to the provision of careers education and guidance mean there is little room in the curriculum for ‘employability skills’. Yet if young people don’t learn these skills during their time at school, how can we expect them to be work ready when they leave? Businesses and charities must play their part and schools also must ensure they are giving young people the very best chance of future success once they walk through the school gates for the final time.

4. Extra support for the most vulnerable – our ThinkForward super coaches support young people most at risk of making a successful transition, from the age of fourteen through to nineteen. We believe this continuity of support helps young people not only get a job or college course but to stay with it.  There has been much criticism of employment programmes that last for three or six months with no ongoing support. For those furthest away from the labour market, having a named coach who will stick with them and help them navigate the complexities of their personal life and the world of work can make the difference between a young person making a successful transition from school into work or getting stuck in a gap unemployment with significantly reduced prospects.

Rhian Johns is the Policy and Communications Director at Private Equity Foundation and will be speaking at The Work Foundation and Private Equity Foundation’s next fringe event at the Labour Party Conference.

Debate around the shocking number of NEET young people and youth unemployment is inevitably focused on what the government is going to do NOW.  That’s important, but it makes no sense for all our efforts to be concentrated on emergency flood relief.  Just as urgent are solutions further up stream, because regardless of when we see an upturn in the economy, another generation of disengaged young people is waiting in the wings.

According to government figures, almost 400,000 children missed at least a month’s worth of lessons in the school year 2010/11, with those on free school meals or with special educational needs, around three times more likely to be persistently absent.  Of pupils who miss between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of school, only 35 per cent manage to achieve five A* to C GCSEs, including English and maths.

Many are children like Luke, the subject of a short online film that gives us a glimpse of his world.  Luke has aspirations.  He wants to be a vet.  What is heartbreaking is that at just eleven he already senses that somehow that is a step too far for someone like him and that he probably won’t make it.

What can we do for Luke?  A lot.  Early intervention programmes, backed by PEF, look beyond the classroom to resolve challenging circumstances at home, work in schools to give mental health support, and provide near peer mentors, all with the aim of improving attendance and academic attainment in areas of deprivation.

In addition, ThinkForward, PEF’s latest breakthrough programme assigns ‘at risk’ 14 year olds with their own ‘super coach’ who works with them right up to age 19, giving them a personalised action plan, workplace mentor, introductions to business networks and work opportunities.

My dream is that we can get to young people like Luke before they stop dreaming.  While of course we must do everything we can to for the current cohort of young people without work, let’s not leave it all so late for Luke.

Shaks Ghosh, Chief Executive, Private Equity Foundation

Young people are either unable or taking longer to secure a first foot on the job ladder.  In England alone, around 450,000 NEETs have yet to make the move from learning into work, outside casual or holiday jobs.  There’s evidence that more employers expect applicants to be ‘job ready’ leading to a catch 22: no skills, no job; no job, no skills.

For the sake of all our futures, we need to close the growing gulf our young people face between leaving school and finding employment.  In the current economic climate that’s a big ask, but employers unable to offer young people jobs or apprenticeships can still have a role.

At a recent Work Foundation event, Dr Anthony Mann, Director of Policy and Research at the Education and Employers Taskforce, pointed to a relationship between the extent of employer engagement arranged during school years (14-19) and the successful labour market progression of young adults (19-24).  He found that each employer contact improved the odds of being non-NEET by 29 per cent.

The provision of work shadowing, mentoring, workplace visits or talks in schools all make a difference.

And, despite the current controversy, in interviews carried out as part of a recent Work Foundation report, one important area where long-term young unemployed people felt they had not received the support they needed was around access to opportunities like work experience.  It’s just got to be offered in the right way, not exploitative but opening up new networks and avenues which could lead to a job.

There’s plenty of scope. For example last year, research by Demos found that ‘shockingly’ there is currently little to no engagement from local employers or businesses in school ‘career fairs’.

We all remember the person who gave us our first break.  If you’re an employer, could you give a young person a helping hand – a connection to the world of work?  As one young person quoted by The Work Foundation said “I love working, I love being busy…If someone could just give me a chance.”

Shaks Ghosh, Chief Executive, Private Equity Foundation

It is easy to assume that Youth Unemployment is merely another sign of recession Britain, yet our recent research project in partnership with The Work Foundation suggests otherwise.  Youth Unemployment was on the rise long before the recession hit and although our post 2007 world has done nothing to alleviate the issue it is not the only factor.  In some parts of the UK 1 in 3 young people are not in employment yet are we worried?  Youth Unemployment is cyclical and although the recession has had a detrimental effect it is not the only cause.  To ensure young people land safely in the labour market, we need to fix both the cyclical and the structural and if we don’t, economic recovery will not be enough to get our young people into work.

The costs are too high to ignore.  The current cohort of young people not in education training or employment will cost the UK economy £35 billion in lost economic opportunities and cost the taxpayer £13 billion over their lifetimes. (Audit commission 2010)  Wage scarring is also likely; Young people who are unemployed for a long time will earn less throughout their whole lives. They will be less employable. They won’t have the skills that business needs and they are more likely to have long-term health problems. The costs are economic, societal and individual – what a waste.

Last year the Private Equity Foundation developed a “Manifesto for action”, a ten point plan for improving the way we as a nation tackle the NEET issue.  It looks at strategic enablers and more pragmatic approaches for getting young people into work.  It highlighted that some of the barriers to work can be as straightforward and solvable as transport being too expensive for some to seek or start work or as culturally significant as a lack of motivation. We heard some stark statements from young people on what they believe the problems to be: services are often termed “irrelevant”, or “confusing and difficult to navigate”, formal, classroom training “lacks relevance” for some in this group and depressingly others commented that there are no second chances. “If at first you don’t succeed, you don’t succeed”.

We are keen to hear more from employers.  Why do they struggle to recruit young people, what are the barriers?  We often ask whether our young people are ready for work, but how ready is the world of work for our young people?

Another crucial element in understanding the barriers our young people are facing is that of local labour market supply and demand.  The UK is not one labour market, but rather is many localised labour markets, each with differing needs and requiring different skills.  Are we giving the local labour market an adequate voice in the preparation and skilling of our young people?  Are we training young people for jobs that simply do not exist or not training them for opportunities which are in demand?  Do young people having realistic expectations of the labour market; I’d ask is there also a need for employers to be realistic about their role in training and skilling young people?

We are working in in partnership with The Work Foundation on a two year research programme which will take a deeper look at some of these issues. Throughout the programme we will be looking at both short and long term ways to help young people become productive members of the labour market and putting forward policy recommendations for fixing both the cyclical and structural relationship our young people have with it – you can view the research papers here  and would love to hear your comments.

Rhian Johns

Private Equity Foundation