Young people on benefits will be offered job opportunities in industries such as construction and hospitality in a bid to tackle rising youth unemployment.
The government will fund 350,000 training and work experience placements, and will guarantee 55,000 jobs in areas it says are in the highest need from spring 2026.
Funding will come from the £820m announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the Budget last month to finance a raft of measures aimed at getting young people off Universal Credit and into work.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said the plans would help out-of-work young people “make something of their lives”. But the Tories blamed the Budget for driving youth unemployment up.
The number of 16-24-year-olds not in employment, education or training – known as Neets – has been trending upwards since 2021, with the latest figures showing nearly a million young people are now not earning or learning.
The government had already announced in September that it intended to provide guaranteed work placements for 18-21-year-olds who had been out of work or education for longer than 18 months, with those not taking up the offer without good reason facing losing their benefits.
The new training and work experience opportunities for young people on Universal Credit will be in sectors including construction, hospitality, and health and social care, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced on Saturday.
It said that the government-backed jobs will not necessarily be in the same sectors, but that they would be in the following regions:
- Birmingham and Solihull
- the East Midlands
- Greater Manchester
- Hertfordshire and Essex
- Central and eastern Scotland
- South-west and south-eastern Wales
The government says that 900,000 young people in total who are on Universal Credit and are looking for work will be given a “dedicated work support session”, followed by four additional weeks of “intensive support”.
An employment coach will then refer them to one of six pathways: work, work experience, apprenticeship, wider training, learning, or a workplace training programme with a guaranteed interview.
The government expects more than 1,000 young people to start a job in the first six months of the scheme.
“Every young person deserves a fair chance to succeed. When given the right support and opportunities, they will grasp them,” McFadden said.
He described the funding as “a downpayment on young people’s future”.
But shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately criticised other measures announced in the Budget, saying: “The Chancellor’s tax hikes are driving up youth unemployment, snatching a career from a generation of young people.”
She added: “This scheme is nothing more than taking with one hand to give with the other.”
Further plans are expected to be set out in the coming week as the government prepares to publish its national youth strategy.
Reeves previously announced that the government would be funding a scheme to make apprenticeship training for under-25s at small and medium businesses “completely free”.
There were 946,000 young people who were Neet in the UK in the three months to September – equivalent to 12.7% of all people aged 16-24.
A quarter cite long-term sickness or disability as a barrier to work or education, while the number claiming health and disability benefits is also on the rise.
The government announced last month that it was launching an independent review into the rising number of young people not working or studying.
