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Times are tough for young people

Posted by Kate Green, MP for Stretford and Urmston, at 11:19, Fri 26 July 2013:

Parliament is in recess for the summer, and I have been able to spend time meeting groups around the constituency.

I was really pleased to attend a meeting of the Trafford Youth Cabinet this week.

We had a wide ranging discussion, covering everything from Syria to sexism, from political education to bus fares.

It was the best political debate I’ve been to for ages. I was really energised listening to young people express their ideas and opinions so forcibly.

But times are tough for young people. In Stretford and Urmston, 645 young people were unemployed as at the end of June.

115 have been unemployed for more than 12 months.

Everyone I speak to agrees that the number of young people out of work, or without a college place, is one of the most pressing concerns facing us. Getting off to a good start in life is so important. But we are letting down too many young people, and it is a huge insult to them that they are left without decent choices for the future.

Some young people have simply decided they can’t afford to go to college or university. They’re worried about debt, or simply about the cost of travel, equipment and books. The young people I met at the Youth Cabinet were particularly concerned about the cost of travelling to and from college or school.

Labour opposed the government’s abolition of the education maintenance allowance, that helped young people with the costs associated with staying on at school or college, including travel costs.

The members of the Youth Cabinet said the discretionary arrangements that had been put in place to replace the EMA weren’t adequate.

Meantime, changes to the exam system are leaving young people having to cope with constant uncertainty and confusion. And funding for careers advice has been axed.

The government’s Youth Contract, which was supposed to incentivise employers to take on an unemployed young person, has been a failure. Just 4690 incentives have been paid since the scheme was launched. The programme has missed its target by 92%.

This is a disgrace, and even Nick Clegg has admitted the government’s employment support for young people is too confusing.

Labour would keep things simple. We’d introduce a straightforward guarantee that every young person who’d been out of work for more than 1 year would be promised a job.

Many of my constituents are especially worried about the cost of going to university. Yet it’s really important to our economy that we continue to educate good quality graduates.

Labour has already said we would cut student fees from £9000 a year to £6000. That would help young people, and business would benefit from having more good quality graduates from which to recruit.

This week, Labour’s Youth Jobs taskforce published a report on the wider business perspective on young people and employment.

The report suggested a number of strategies that would help to improve employment opportunities for young people, learning from countries like Germany.

We’ve suggested

1. Making small business the key to Britain’s youth employment strategy. We should revolutionise the way the apprenticeship system functions so that it works for SMEs. Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield are creating apprenticeship training agencies to make it easy for an SME to say ‘yes’ to a young apprentice. We should spread this good practice around the country.

2. Exploring how small business, government and schools can come together to rebuild Britain’s careers service. Manchester are already piloting UCAS style clearing houses for apprenticeships to help small businesses find the recruits they need.

3. Giving more access to job outcome data for schools – so parents can see how well local schools are preparing their children for the world of work.

4. Increasing employer engagement in schools, for example by encouraging business people to sit on governing boards.

5. Ensuring that young people leave school with a plan for their future careers, whether that’s a university, apprenticeship or employment offer. Young people are our future and it makes sense for us to invest in them. If you’re a business person, or you’re a teacher or work with young people, or you’re a parent or grandparent, or a young person who has a view on these ideas, I’d love to hear from you.

Kate Green

Labour Member of Parliament for Stretford and Urmston Shadow Spokesperson for Equalities

tel: 0161 749 9120 (constituency); 020 7219 7162 (Westminster)