CIPD evidence suggests that challenges around young people’s participation in employment, education and training are best understood as the product of interacting structural, institutional and labour-market factors, rather than as a question of aspiration, motivation or capability.

Despite participation in full-time education among young people increasing significantly in recent decades, our research points to a growing disconnect between how young people move through education and how employers structure entry into work. This disconnect is shaped by changes in the labour market, employer behaviour, skills system design, and declining opportunities to gain experience alongside education.

In our submission to the Alan Milburn review we cover:

1. What is stopping more young people from participating in employment, education or training? 

  • The changing nature of the youth labour market
  • Declining opportunities to combine learning and earning
  • Employer perceptions of preparedness and skills
  • The decline of apprenticeships as an entry route
  • Employer recruitment practices
  • The impact of technological change
  • Health and wellbeing

 

2. What would make the biggest difference to supporting participation?

  • Reforming the skills and apprenticeships system
  • Building essential skills through a consistent and explicit approach in schools
  • Improving coordination and place-based delivery
  • Ensuring reforms in the Employment Rights Act don’t inadvertently reduce access to work

Read our full response

Our submission to the Alan Milburn review
PDF document 158.1 KB

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