Definition of NEET - distinction between unemployed/NEET and eligibility for benefits.
- First known as Status Zero group since the removal of entitlement to benefit as a result of 1988 Social Security Act.
- Recent figures show that youth unemployment in England has reached nearly 1 million among 16-24 year olds - what is less well known is that the majority of the 16-18 population are not included in this figure since most are not in claimant count (unless estranged from their families or in hardship) - so in reality the actual figure is over 1 million.
Over the ten years to 2010:
- the proportion of 16-year olds NEET had fallen from 6.7 per cent in 2000 to 2.3 per cent in 2010 - the lowest ever recorded figure
- the proportion of 17-year old NEETs had fallen less dramatically from 7.4 per cent to 6.8 per cent over the same period - the lowest figure since 1988
- the proportion of 18-year old NEETs in 2010 was 12.4 per cent, the lowest it has been since 2004.
By raising participation rates in education and training and by the last Labour Govt introducing support mechanisms to make this happen.
Participation rates in education and training for 16 and 17 year olds being at their highest ever levels: in 2010 97.1 per cent of all 16-year olds were in education or training in England, which contrasts with a figure of 86.4 per cent in 2000 and among 17-year olds, 89.9 per cent of the population were in education or training in 2010, compared to 80.6 per cent ten years ago. There has been a steady increase in the proportions participating in post-16 education and training among both groups since 2003.
While it can be argued that over the last ten years there were multiple local and national policy interventions targeted at increasing participation rates in post-16 education and training, since 2003 continual increases coincide with:
- The national roll out of EMA from 2004.
- The Connexions Services from 2003, which focused on offering guidance and support to hard to reach/hard to help groups of young people, and
- The implementation of the September Guarantees in 2007, which ensured that ever 16-year old (and from 2008 every 17-year old) received an offer to stay in education and training (Maguire and Rennison, 2005, OECD, 2008).
I predict that next year's figures will not look so good:
- Removal of EMA and the re-introduction of a largely local discretionary fund which is targeted at the most vulnerable groups of young people, once they have embarked on a course.
- The winding down of the Connexions services, with the redundancy of many staff and skills and the replacement with a new Careers Service (on-line) and school responsibility for advice and guidance.
- Contracting job market and Apprenticeship figures for 16-18 year olds are less than rosy - last year only 6% of places went to this group and the majority of the so-called 'expansion' has gone to adults already in work - Morrisons and MacDonalds.
- Cost of higher education will deter applications - therefore youth unemployment among 18+ group will rise still further as some young people who leave post-16 education will not progress to HE and will struggle to access the labour market.
- The NEET stats have always been collated by Connexions and this responsibility will be assumed by Local Authorities who have little expertise in tracking young people - the net effect may be that NEET stats do not rise quite as dramatically as we might think, although the 'unknown' stats will rocket as many young people's destinations become unknown and with that there is a high risk that young people 'get lost'. We will once again have a Status Zero generation.
