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Almost 1m young people to benefit from new training and work experience opportunities

ended 08. December 2025

Almost one million young people will benefit from learning or employment opportunities as a result of a major £820 million funding package, the government has announced.

It says 350,000 new training or workplace opportunities in sectors including construction, health and social care and hospitality will be provided to young people on Universal Credit to help them develop job skills, build employer networks and undertake CV and interview coaching.

In total, 900,000 young people on Universal Credit and looking for work will also benefit from a dedicated work support session, followed by four additional weeks of intensive support.

55,000 young people also stand to gain from a government-backed guaranteed job, which will begin roll-out from Spring 2026 in areas with some of the highest need in Great Britain. These regions are: Birmingham & Solihull, East Midlands, Greater Manchester, Hertfordshire & Essex, Central & East Scotland, Southwest & Southeast Wales.

Recent data shows that almost one million young people are not in education, employment, or training (NEET), a 26% increase from pre-pandemic levels. Today’s announcement represents a major intervention to reverse this trend and ensure no young person is left behind.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Too many young people fall out of education unnoticed, crippling their life changes and denting the economy. Smarter data and early-warning tools will change that – helping us to spot risks sooner, step in faster, and keep learners on track through our Plan for Change. With these ambitious measures, we can break down barriers to opportunity to make sure every young person gets the support they deserve.”

4 responses from the Newspage community

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Kate Underwood
Founder & Chief People Strategist at Kate Underwood HR and Training
£820m looks flashy in a press release, and yes, extra training and four weeks of “intensive support” will help some young people. But calling it a “major intervention” when nearly a million are NEET feels like spin. This is more fire blanket than fire brigade. Young people are out of education or work for messy, human reasons: anxiety, rock bottom confidence, chaotic home lives, caring responsibilities, undiagnosed SEND, sky high living costs and a job market stuffed with low paid, insecure roles. You do not fix that with short term schemes designed to tidy up a statistic and wave the threat of sanctions. If the Government is serious, this money has to come with proper mental health support, long term local partnerships and real jobs with real training, not box ticking placements that look good on a chart and go nowhere. Charities like Safe New Futures show what actually works: clinically informed programmes that rebuild confidence, skills and hope at the same time. This package is a
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Colette Mason
AI Ethics Consultant at Clever Clogs AI
£820m is a mere £870 each over 3 years. Meanwhile, they're being offered jobs in construction, hospitality, and social care that barely cover the rent on a mouldy studio flat at the edge of town.

The big problem is recruiting on 2015 criteria for industries being transformed by AI now. That hospitality role? Already using automated booking systems, chatbot complaints handling, and AI-driven rostering. Construction? BIM systems, AI project management, drone surveying. Social care? Electronic monitoring, AI scheduling, automated reporting.

We're training our youth to fill roles that are actively being replaced, not to work alongside the systems replacing them. Where's the AI system training? AI ethics/governance training? Where are the jobs teaching people to supervise AI, spot where automation fails, provide the judgment these systems desperately need? We don't need people doing tasks AI can automate. We need people who can lead when the AI gets it wrong, because it will, constantly.
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Rohit Parmar-Mistry
Founder at Pattrn Data
We need to stop confusing 'job placement' with 'career building.' The previous government’s Kickstart scheme proved that if you just subsidise wages for six months without a plan for what happens next, large firms will treat young people like disposable, cheap labour. They get six months of work out of them and then swap them for the next subsidised batch.

The problem with this new £820m package isn't the sectors it targets, construction, care, and hospitality are vital,it’s the lack of ambition in the skills being taught. Especially highlighted with the amount put forward.

Instead of funding temporary manual labour, the government should demand that every subsidised placement includes mandatory training in the technology reshaping those industries.

If we don't make these young people valuable assets by giving them 'human-plus-machine' skills, they will just be churned out the moment the funding stops. We have to break the cycle of state-subsidised churn and abuse.
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Patricia McGirr
Founder at Repossession Rescue Network
This is a social spin sound bite dressed up as a solution to a structural crisis. You cannot talk about opportunity when employers are freezing hiring, stripping out entry level roles and using AI to do the work young people used to cut their teeth on. The pathway into work has narrowed, not widened, and a few weeks of coaching will not reverse that. Until government policy gives businesses the confidence to create real jobs, we are training young people for doors that no longer open.