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We are pleased that more 16- to 18-year-olds continue in education, although note the UK still lies behind other OECD countries. Whether this is because of changes in legislation or more effective interventions is debatable. We note, however, that at the end of 2013, 148,000 out of the cohort of 2 million 16- to 18-year-olds in England were NEET (not in education, employment or training). Some within this NEET group have been reached by the Youth Contract, but we note this is expected to only support half the number it was originally predicted to assist, will end soon and the Department has no plans to replace it.
Careers advice remains patchy across the country and local authorities do not know what large numbers of the young people in their areas are doing. This means these young people are difficult to target. In 2010 the Department transferred responsibility for providing careers advice to schools but did not give them additional resources to fund it.
The Department wants more employers to be involved in providing apprenticeships. We welcome this, but note it needs to ensure that smaller businesses can be helped to offer quality apprenticeships too.
We are also concerned that many local authorities do not help 16- to 18-year-olds with the costs of travelling to school or college, which can lead to some young people being disadvantaged. The Department told us that, unlike academies and local authority maintained schools, sixth form and FE colleges are unable to reclaim because they are classified as private sector. This means that sixth form students attending FE and sixth form colleges are less generously funded.
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