Education is just the job for NEETS

When Andreas Schleicher, the Head of Education at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, spoke at last week’s Sutton Trust seminar, he said one thing that made me really sit up. Young people who spend time out of education and employment see their skills decline over time to a point where, if they are out long enough, they become virtually unemployable.

I couldn’t forget this frighteningfact when Andreas published his latest edition of Education at a Glance, the compendium of international education statistics, on Tuesday.

His report showed that young people in the UK, aged between 15 and 29, spend more time in the labour market than in education and training – nearly nine years compared with six years – than the OECD average, but that they also spend 2.3 years either unemployed or out of the labour market entirely, higher than the European Union average.

Indeed, when compared with economies that train young people most effectively, such as Switzerland, their average time out of work or training is significantly greater. Swiss young people spend 1.3 years out of the labour market, and Dutch young people just 1.1 years. In Germany and Australia the average is 1.7 years.

Of course, our youth unemployment rates are not as bad as countries like Spain, Greece and Ireland, which have suffered most from the economic crisis of recent years. But youth unemployment rates have been rising in the UK and there is a clear correlation with levels of educational attainment.

Graduate unemployment has risen from 2.1 to 3.9 per cent, but for those without an A level or equivalent, the unemployment rate rose from 6.6 to 11 per cent. Even among those in work, there are far more part-timers – 8.2 per cent in 2011 compared with an OECD average of 5 per cent.

With over one million young people not in education, employment and training – or NEETs in the jargon – there is clearly still a shocking waste of youthful potential here. Those young people who spend several years as NEETs find it almost impossible to get lasting work because of the erosion in their already low level of skills.

That is why it is so crucial that we both improve their attainment in our schools and have a serious overhaul of our system of vocational education and apprenticeships. The OECD also shows that the UK has one of lowest percentages of 15-19 year olds and 20-29 year-olds enrolled in education among the OECD nations.

The Education Endowment Foundation is working to improve the attainment of disadvantaged young people in schools, giving them the opportunity to improve their qualifications and employability. As Dirk Van Damme, the OECD’s Head of the Innovation and Measuring Progress, put it this week on their blog: “Those without a minimal level of education, and certainly those of them without a stable job, find themselves without any shelter from the storm.”

The EEF has also awarded over £250,000 to Think Forward, an initiative providing long-term coaching for pupils at risk of becoming NEETs. It provides highly trained coaches to work with 14 year olds as they progress through to their GCSEs and post-16 choices, supporting them to make a successful transition into adulthood.

But this demands a much bigger solution nationally. Alison Wolf’s report suggested important reforms for vocational education among the under-18s. But if we are to match the best in the world, we need to take a radical look at the system of apprenticeships, in particular, ensuring they are fit for purpose for young people of all levels of prior attainment.

We’re working with the Boston Consulting Group to develop ideas informed by some of the best systems in the world. We’ll have more to tell you about this after the summer.