Today’s 16- to 18-year-olds who have fallen out of education will be given more chances to get back into learning, as colleges are put at the heart of an urgent national drive to tackle the NEETs crisis.
In a major call to action to the further education sector today ahead of Alan Milburn’s final report on the NEET crisis, the Education Secretary urged colleges across the country to get young people who aren’t in education back through their doors to give them a chance to succeed.
Milburn’s work has been a clarion call for the whole of government and society, shining a light on the lack of responsibility and incentives across the system for getting young people back into learning or work.
That’s why the Education Secretary has called on colleges to connect with employers and provide young people with meaningful work experience that can create a route into a job - rather than waiting for long-term reform to ensure no child is left behind.
She asked for them to bring forward ideas and plans to urgently make this vision a reality across the country, proving to young people that change can happen.
In return, the Education Secretary pledged to work with the sector to break down the barriers that can make it harder or riskier for colleges to take those young people on. This includes:
- Providing significantly more flexibility on the number of hours of English and maths required of young people who are NEET and returning to education and allowing for remaining hours to be delivered through one-to-one and small group support.
- Changing how schools, colleges and others are measured, recognised, and rewarded, including better recognising progress in English and Maths and disincentivising premature exam entries.
- Providing funding certainty for enrolling young NEETs, so colleges are not disincentivised from giving students a second chance.
She said at the Association of Colleges conference:
Frankly, I think it’s unforgivable that there are almost 150,000 16-18-year-olds who right now are NEET.
Instead of sitting at home, we need to get them into college or doing an apprenticeship.
I want us to reach them with an exciting, new, and engaging offer.
Every single one of us is the room have the power and ability to give today’s 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds new hope.
Because there are hundreds of thousands out there who need a second chance. Some of them need a third or fourth chance.
Let’s take action today together to give it to them. I’ll break your barriers down for you but in return I need your help.
Let’s set ourselves the mission to get these young people back into college. And that’s what you do best – engage, support, train, educate - and most of all give hope and give purpose.
And my promise to you is to put colleges not at the back of the queue but at the heart of that new mission. And in return I ask you to meet this moment and make hope real for the next generation.
Warning that too many of the young people struggling today are part of a generation whose education was hit by Covid, she argues that supporting 150,000 16- to 18-year-old NEETs will be key to helping to solve the crisis.
The Education Secretary said:
Practically a whole generation completely let down. And let’s not forget, this is the generation whose education was harmed by covid, and who didn’t get the catch up they were promised.
This is the generation whose Sure Start was cancelled…whose youth services were cut…whose futures were sold short.
And they were educated in a one-size-fits-all system. It’s worked for some, but it’s left far too many behind.
The government is taking long-term action to tackle the problem at its roots, including creating a more engaging national curriculum, stopping the endless cycle of repeated English and maths GCSE resits through new Level 1 qualifications, reforming SEND, expanding vocational education through new V Levels and vocational GCSEs and giving local leaders a greater role in shaping 16 to 19 provision.