The social and financial costs of so many young people being unemployed at the start of their working lives threatened the UK’s economy in both the short and long-term.
A study released last year estimated the lifetime cost to the economy of 16-18 year old NEETs (Not in education, employment or training) in just one year (2008) to be somewhere between £22bn and £77bn.*
NUS said that a further increase in apprenticeships, the restoration of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), the protection of the Care-to-Learn support for teenage parents and ensuring that properly paid internships were available, were simple, cost-effective solutions that could be put in place quickly.
Toni Pearce, NUS Vice-President (Further Education), said:
“It’s clear that there is a crisis in youth unemployment and that the Government needs to take concrete action immediately.
“It is not enough to simply tell young people to wait until things improve as they watch their futures slip away. Evidence shows that when young people fall into unemployment that it holds them back for the rest of their lives, so the Government must do something to address these problems now.
“Restoring EMA, protecting Care-to-Learn, increasing, even doubling the number of new apprenticeships and properly enforcing minimum wage legislation for internships are common sense actions that would have real and immediate effects.”