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Nearly one million young people in the UK are not in education, employment or training. That sentence should stop us in our tracks.

Behind it are young people who want to work, want to learn, want independence, and want a future they can believe in. But too many are finding that the routes into adulthood have become blocked, confusing or simply absent.

The government’s interim report on young people and work makes one thing very clear: this is not a story about a generation that lacks ambition. It is a story about a system that no longer works well enough for the young people who need it most.

The first step into work has become too hard

For previous generations, the first job was often informal, local and human. You could walk into a shop, speak to a manager, get a Saturday job, learn how to turn up on time, deal with customers, work in a team and build confidence.

Today, many young people meet the labour market through online forms, automated screening, recorded interviews and silence.

Entry-level work has become less entry-level. Employers ask for experience, but the pathways that once helped young people gain that experience have narrowed. The first rung of the ladder has become thinner.

Apprenticeships should be one of the strongest bridges between education and work. Yet the report shows that apprenticeship starts for young people have fallen significantly, with entry-level routes particularly weakened. That matters because apprenticeships are not just training programmes. At their best, they are confidence-building, identity-building and future-building opportunities.

When those routes shrink, young people do not just lose income. They lose the chance to become known, trusted and proven.

Health and work can no longer be treated separately

One of the most important findings in the report is the growing link between young people’s health, especially mental health, and labour market detachment.

Too often, the public debate turns this into a false choice. Either young people are accused of using mental health as an excuse, or work is treated as something that should wait until every difficulty has been resolved. Both views miss the point.

Many young people with anxiety, depression, neurodivergence, disability or other health conditions can work, learn and contribute. But they need the right support, the right timing and the right kind of workplace.

The current system is still too often built around what someone cannot do, rather than what they could do with help. A diagnosis should not become a life sentence outside education or work. Support should open doors, not close them.

We are paying for failure instead of investing in prevention

The report estimates the annual cost of almost one million young people being NEET at £125 billion. But the deeper cost is human.

Every month spent outside education or work can chip away at confidence. It can make the next application harder, the next interview more daunting, the next rejection more painful. Over time, detachment becomes harder to reverse. That is why early intervention matters so much.

We often know who is at risk long before a young person becomes NEET. Poor school readiness, persistent absence, low attainment, unmet special educational needs, family stress, poor mental health and limited exposure to work are not hidden signals. They are visible.

The tragedy is that the system sees too many warning signs and still waits too long. By the time a young person reaches crisis point, the response is more expensive, more complex and less likely to succeed. We spend heavily on managing the consequences of disengagement, while underinvesting in the relationships, guidance, work experience and practical support that could prevent it.

Young people need a participation system, not a maze

The report’s strongest message is that Britain has services for young people, but not a coherent system for helping them move into adulthood.

Schools, colleges, employers, councils, health services, Jobcentres, charities and families all hold pieces of the puzzle. But responsibility is scattered. Data is not joined up. Incentives point in different directions. Too many young people are referred, assessed or signposted, but not actually supported through to the next step.

A young person does not experience life in policy departments. They experience it as one journey. That journey should be simple: someone knows them, someone notices when they are drifting, someone helps them find the next step, and someone stays with them long enough for that step to stick. For too many young people, that does not happen.

Employers have to be part of the answer

This is not only a government problem. Employers are central to the solution.

Many businesses say they want to hire young people, but feel they are being asked to carry more risk. Some young applicants need more support with confidence, communication, routines and workplace expectations. Large employers may be able to absorb that. Small employers often cannot.

So the answer is not to blame employers. It is to make it easier for them to say yes. That means better pre-employment preparation, stronger local partnerships, supported work placements, practical help for managers, and incentives that recognise the additional time it can take to bring a young person into work well.

Hiring a young person should not feel like a gamble. It should feel like an investment backed by a system that wants both the young person and the employer to succeed.

The question should be: what would help you take the next step?

The report calls for a shift from a welfare state that mainly compensates people when they are outside work, to a working state that helps people participate wherever possible.

That phrase could sound harsh if misunderstood. It must not mean abandoning young people who cannot work, or weakening support for disabled young people who need long-term security. Protection must remain.

But for young people who want to work, train or study, support should be a springboard. The question should not only be, “What is wrong?” or “What can’t you do?” It should be, “What would help you take the next step?”

That next step might be a supported placement. It might be a trusted mentor. It might be help with travel, confidence, mental health, childcare, digital access or managing a health condition at work. It might be a college course that feels connected to a real job. It might be an employer willing to look beyond a thin CV.

Small steps matter. But they need to lead somewhere.

We cannot afford to waste a generation

The most hopeful part of the report is also the simplest: young people have not given up.

Many are applying for jobs and hearing nothing back. Many are trying to manage health conditions while still wanting independence. Many have talents that have never been properly noticed because they have been labelled first as absent, anxious, difficult, disabled, behind or NEET.

We should be angry about that. But we should also be practical. A country that needs workers, carers, builders, creators, technicians, entrepreneurs and community leaders cannot afford to leave nearly one million young people on the sidelines.

The task now is not another short-term initiative that sits on top of a fragmented system. It is to build something coherent: a real participation system for early adulthood, one that joins education, health, skills, welfare and employers around a shared goal.

Every young person should have the chance to learn or earn. Not because it sounds good in a policy document, but because work, learning and contribution are part of how people build confidence, dignity, relationships and hope. Young people have not given up on work. We must not give up on them.

Source: Young people and work: interim report – GOV.UK