This paper presents the final recommendations from the Youth Employment Group, for measures to support young people through the COVID-19 crisis, improve their employment prospects and prevent mass youth unemployment.  The Group was established by Impetus, Youth Futures Foundation, Youth Employment UK, the Institute for Employment Studies and The Prince’s Trust in March 2020, and now has a membership of over 150 leaders and experts across the youth employment sector.

The recommendations in this paper were produced by six working groups that convened between March and August, exploring how to minimise job-losses; provide employment support during lockdown; ensure effective employment support after lockdown; encourage a healthy youth labour market; support viable and quality self-employment for young people; and ensure effective and accurate use of data.

The paper recommends that the government commit to set clear objectives to ensure that no young person spends more than six months unemployed without having access to a meaningful education or employment offer; and that the number of young people not in education, employment or training returns to pre-pandemic levels by October next year. It then makes nineteen recommendations around the effective design and delivery of employment, skills, careers, entrepreneurship and welfare support for young people both during and after the crisis.

The YEG recommends that clear objectives are set to monitor progress in supporting young people during the economic crisis and beyond. Further recommendations fall within the following themes:

• Create more opportunities for young people
• Help employers to help young people
• Provide young people with the right information and advice
• Support self-employment for young people
• Build and utilise the evidence on ‘what works’ for supporting young people

Click HERE to read the full article by the Youth Employment Group, September 2020.