May 2022
Price: £95 PLUS VAT
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This conference examined latest developments, priorities and next steps for tackling youth unemployment - as well as latest thinking on improving pathways for young people to find employment.
The agenda included case studies on strategies and initiatives for:
- tackling regional inequalities and skills shortages
- developing the role of business in tackling youth unemployment, and recognising the needs of the job market and employers
- developing and adopting the tools needed to get young people into work
Overall, sessions in the agenda included:
- learning from young people’s experiences of accessing the labour market and securing work throughout the pandemic
- the impact of the Kickstart Scheme and key lessons moving forward
- improving provision of information, advice and guidance (IAG) for young people on job opportunities
- developing pathways to work - work placements - access to vocational courses - apprenticeships - tackling inequality in the job market
- access to the labour market and the role of employers moving forward
- policy priorities for tackling youth unemployment in England into the future
We also had discussion on what will be needed going forward, in the context of:
- provisions in the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill
- the new skills mission from government as part of the Levelling Up White Paper, and ambitions for high quality skills training and Local Skills Improvement Plans across England
- the end of support measures such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the shift of young people into full-time education during the pandemic
- the Public Accounts Committee report on Kickstart scheme implementation, with concerns over the delivery of funding to employers and the number of people that the scheme supported
We were pleased to be able to include keynote sessions with Tammy Fevrier, Deputy Director, Youth and Skills, Department for Work and Pensions; Christiana Orlando, Health Foundation Research Fellow, Institute for Employment Studies; Joshua Reddaway, Director, DWP Value for Money, National Audit Office; and John Yarham, Deputy CEO, The Careers and Enterprise Company.
The conference was an opportunity for stakeholders to consider the issues alongside key policy officials who attended from DWP; BEIS; DIT; HM Treasury; Department for the Economy, NI; Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science; GLD; HMPPS; the Home Office; the NIAO; the SMC; and the Welsh Government - as well as parliamentary pass-holders from the House of Lords.
