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Government respond to Youth Contract report

The Government has said independent, face-to-face careers advice can be most effective for young people, despite removing funding for careers advice in schools.

In a response to the Work and Pensions Committee’s report on Youth Unemployment and the Youth Contract, the Government also said it was not their intention that the telephone and online-based National Careers Service would replace a face-to-face service.

As part of the confusing message, the Government’s response read: “Schools cannot fulfil their duty to secure access to independent and impartial careers guidance simply by signposting pupils to a website.

“They will be expected to work in partnership with external and expert careers guidance providers and employers as appropriate, to ensure pupils get good advice on the full range of post-16 options.”

In its response, the Government said youth unemployment is still too high, although it was too early to make a formal assessment of the impact of the Youth Contract.

The W&P Committee suggested there should be more focus on regional and sub-regional variations in youth unemployment, to which the Government said it had established “youth unemployment hotspots” were earlier eligibility of wage incentives were introduced.

Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, Dame Anne Begg MP, commented: “The Government appears to have taken on board some of the Committee’s recommendations. As our report concluded, the Youth Contract alone will not be sufficient to solve the youth unemployment problem but it must be given the best possible chance to make a significant impact.”

“We are particularly pleased that the Government has acted quickly to extend the eligibility of the employer wage incentive to all 18-24 year-olds who reach six months on unemployment benefit.

“Employers across Great Britain will now be able to access wage incentives directly through Jobcentre Plus (JCP) and young people will therefore not have to wait until they have been referred to the Work Programme, which is usually not until they have been on benefit for nine months. This is in line with the Committee’s recommendation to roll-out JCP delivery of wage incentives if this proved the most cost-effective delivery method.”

“We also welcome the decision to implement the Committee’s recommendation to pilot targeted regional Youth Contract marketing campaigns, which we hope will increase awareness and employer take-up.

“We accept that it is early days for the Youth Contract and welcome the Government’s apparent willingness to review progress and try out new approaches. A number of our recommendations remain under consideration while the effectiveness of the approach is evaluated. We hope the Government will act quickly to implement further changes as necessary.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .