Young People And Full Potential
PEF is focused on addressing the social issues and costs associated with 16-24 year olds not in education, employment or training - NEETs. In the UK alone there are 1.25m young people in this category. Britain’s NEETs problem leads Europe, but other countries including France and Germany also have serious problems.
Many young people now classified as NEETs started life in the most tragic way, often being abandoned in institutions. For instance, in the UK over 60,000 children were in care in 2006 and well over 2,000 in prison [1]. Many of these young people never had the stability of a home life; others have been failed by poor schooling or poor parenting.
The reasons are complex but what is clear is that most are the victims of inter-generational disadvantage and unless we act, the downward cycle will continue.
Not only are the human costs a tragedy, the economic costs are huge. For instance, in the UK alone it is estimated that reducing the 16-18 year old NEET population by just 10% would save the taxpayer nearly £1bn per annum. [2]
Some further facts and figures:
- 1.2 million young people in the UK are not in education, employment or training (NEET)
- Half of all young people leave school with no idea of what they are going to do next.
- 2 out of 10 children leave primary school unable to read and write properly
- Half of all adults are not functionally numerate.
- The UK is 13th in the OECD league table of skills. Yet it is the fourth richest country in the world
- The number of unskilled UK jobs will reduce from 5million to 500,000 in the next five years
