Youth employment crisis: a solvable path forward

One million young people in the UK are not in education, employment or training. What are we going to do about this shocking statistic?

First, we need to understand how we got here. The number of young people disconnected from work or education has surged by 70% over the last decade, a period shaped by social media, austerity and COVID, all of which have impacted mental health and prospects.

When I went to university in the late 1970s, only around 6% of young people studied for a degree. Today it is close to 50%. Back then, about 35% of boys moved straight from school into apprenticeships; today it is closer to 5% across both boys and girls. Britain was still built around heavy industry, but those industries existed in communities across the country. Today, 80% of our economy is service-based, with around a quarter of the UK’s output coming from London alone.

As the economy changed, we shifted from manual and industrial skills toward office-based and professional work. In doing so we lost something important: continuity between education and employment.

My mother was born in Falkirk, Scotland, once world-famous for its cast-iron foundries. Boys in the town, like my grandfather, naturally moved from school into apprenticeships and then into work in the foundries. It was hard, dirty and physically demanding, but it came with community, identity, security and pride. Those foundries are gone, and with them much of that continuity, not just in Falkirk, but across many towns in the UK.

Today both my children went to university hundreds of miles from home. They thrived on the freedom and independence, but that path is not right for everyone. For some young people, this transition marks the beginning of the anxiety and isolation that increasingly affect their generation. Yet there remains enormous pressure from schools, parents and peers to follow the university route, often with little visible alternative.

At the same time, 79% of economically inactive 18-to-24-year-olds who are out of work due to ill health hold qualifications only at GCSE level or below. For many who stay in their hometowns, employment opportunities appear bleak, feeding the depression and anxiety that often follow.

University also brings substantial student debt. For professions such as law or accountancy those debts may eventually be manageable, but many graduates in creative fields, despite the creative industries contributing 5.5% of the UK economy, will never fully repay their loans. Carrying that burden early in life has emotional as well as financial consequences.

When my son started job hunting, he was screened by a computer algorithm that scored his responses. My daughter applied for a role that attracted 400 applicants, all filtered by AI. These tools are efficient, but they strip away the human connection young people need at the start of their careers.

So what can we do?

Government initiatives tend to move slowly, but industry can act now. In some sectors there are encouraging models, design degrees that integrate live projects, regular industry talks and structured placements. In my own businesses we have taken on interns, mentored them and often offered permanent roles. We got to know them as people, not just CVs. But these examples remain exceptions, not the norm.

One practical step would be to revive the spirit of the old polytechnics, institutions with a strong vocational focus and close ties to local industry. Guilds, business groups and schools could work together to make apprenticeships and trade careers more visible and more valued.

Apprenticeships today are not limited to traditional trades. Law firms, accountancy practices and tech companies now run high-quality programmes where young people earn while they learn, avoiding debt and building a professional identity from day one. The UK is projected to face a shortage of nearly one million tradespeople by 2030; expanding apprenticeship routes across all sectors would help close that gap.

The responsibility does not lie with government alone. Employers who already invest in their people should extend that commitment upstream, into schools, into communities, into the talent pipeline before it breaks.

At the recent Elite Business Awards, I was struck by how many of the celebrated businesses had deep roots in their local communities. Extending those relationships into schools and colleges is not a huge leap. It could, however, make a significant difference to a generation of young people who deserve better than the system currently offers them.

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