The publication of ‘Jobs and Education: Building the Bridge to Opportunity’

The full report is available here.

This week we launched our latest report, Jobs and Education: Building the Bridge to Opportunity, examining why over a million young people are not in education, employment or training, and what businesses and schools can do about it.

Jobs and Education is written by Tim Clark and Catherine Frost, with forewords from our CEO Georgiana Bristol, former Education Secretary Ruth Kelly and the Harris Federation’s Sir Dan Moynihan, the report is the product of six months spent visiting businesses and schools the length of the country.

Its central argument is that the NEETs crisis has two causes that are too often treated in isolation. On the demand side, rising employment costs are deterring businesses from hiring young people: the cost of employing someone aged 18 to 20 rose by more than £4,000 between 2024 and 2026, and even fast-growing firms hungry for talent told us they now default to hiring those with experience. On the supply side, too many young people are leaving education without the attitudes, behaviours and work readiness that every employer we spoke to identified as the thing they value above all else.

The report draws on conversations with employers across manufacturing, hospitality, construction and business services, alongside visits to schools with some of the strongest careers provision in the country. It sets out six recommendations, including targeted incentives to encourage the hiring of younger workers, a national work experience framework, a broader curriculum from 14 to 16, and a new Employability Passport to recognise character and work ethic alongside academic results.

What emerged again and again is that the crisis is resolvable, but only if both sides of the bridge are addressed at once, and only with active involvement from central government. The Jobs Foundation will be pressing the case for the report’s recommendations with policymakers, businesses and the media in the weeks ahead.

The full report is available here.