Election 2024: Labour to guarantee work experience to all secondary pupils
Labour has pledged to offer a minimum of two weeks’ quality work experience and recruit over 1,000 new careers advisers in a move it claims will boost careers advice for one million pupils in the next parliament.
The policy, which forms part of the party’s plan to establish a ‘youth guarantee’, is an attempt to stem the rising tide of young people in the UK are classified as not in employment, education or training (NEET).
In 2018, 50,000 pupils fell into this category, but the number has ballooned to 167,000 in 2024.
It comes just months after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found there to have been a steep rise in young people staying out of the jobs market, with a total of three million under-25s classed as economically inactive compared to 384,000 just four years ago.
Bridget Phillipson, shadow education secretary, said: “Over one million young people are set to benefit from Labour ushering in a revolution in work readiness with our plan to work with local employers to turbocharge work experience and careers advice in schools.
“We will train a thousand new careers advisers, and deliver two weeks’ worth of high-quality work experience for every young person at secondary school to boost opportunity.”
It is not yet been made clear whether the party would mandate businesses to take on work experience pupils, or how the placements would be administered and allocated.
Launched alongside its manifesto on June 13, Labour’s ‘youth guarantee’ will draw on existing funding and entitlements to improve access to training, apprenticeships or support young people into work.
This falls under one of Labour’s five missions for government, which, if elected, it will use to shape and benchmark its policymaking and priorities.
Leader Sir Keir Starmer’s fourth mission is to “breakdown the barriers to opportunity”, which the party said will involve reforming childcare and education systems to ensure there is no “class ceiling” for young Brits.
Elsewhere in education, the party has promised to fund free breakfast clubs and provide toothbrushing lessons in all primary schools, funded by its plans to introduce VAT on private school fees.