Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to tackle the youth unemployment crisis by expanding technical education, work experience and links between employers, schools and colleges.
Burnham said around one million young people in Britain are currently not in education, employment or training, equivalent to roughly one in eight, and warned that too many have been left without a meaningful route into work.
Writing on X, the Prime Minister said:
“When I talk to young people about work, the same thing keeps coming up. Not a lack of ambition - a lack of a way in.”
He added that six in ten of those currently out of education, work or training had never had a job at all.
Burnham said the problem should not be blamed on young people themselves.
“I know that these young people aren’t lazy. They have been let down by a system that told them there was only one route to success, and then left them without the opportunities to get their foot in the door anywhere else.”
The Prime Minister also criticised a system in which access to work experience can depend too heavily on personal connections.
“Too often, work experience has depended on who you know, rather than what you can do.”
Burnham pointed to changes announced last month allowing young people from the age of 14 to access more technical education, practical skills, work experience and links with local employers.
He said the next stage of the Government’s plan would bring businesses, schools and colleges together more closely to help young people move from education into employment.
“Now we’re bringing employers, schools and colleges together to close the gap between the classroom and the workplace.”
The intervention comes alongside new commitments from major employers to expand work experience opportunities.
Sainsbury’s has announced plans to create 10,000 work experience places for young people from October 2026, with a particular focus on communities with high levels of free school meal eligibility and young people who are not currently in employment, education or training.
Labour MPs have welcomed the initiative and called on other major employers to follow suit.
Burnham said the Government’s objective was to create more practical routes into good jobs and ensure young people who do not follow a traditional academic pathway are not left behind.
He concluded:
“The youth unemployment crisis has been ignored for too long.”
“That ends now.”
The Prime Minister’s intervention signals that youth employment and skills will remain a major focus for the Labour Government, with ministers seeking to combine education reform with direct partnerships with employers to open up more routes into the workplace.
