One step forward and two steps back? The UK's policy response to youth unemployment

This paper examines the role of the UK's post-16 education and training system in supporting the young unemployed. It maps the trajectory of a series of time-limited policy initiatives, which have attempted to install a training system for young people alongside containing fluctuating levels of youth unemployment. The impact of the expansion of post-16 full-time educational opportunities for young people, as a means of extending qualification attainment and delaying labour market entry, is also considered. The overall outcome has been the extension of the age-cohort 'in transition', and an increasingly fragmented policy landscape, with each of the four UK nations progressively moving in different directions. Despite forty years of government-led youth training interventions, it is suggested that the UK lacks the opportunity structures and support mechanisms needed to enable most young people, and particularly those from disadvantaged groups, to secure and sustain quality jobs and training. The paper concludes by pointing out the immediate priorities in addressing the imminent upsurge in youth unemployment.