Andy Burnham is right in his comments about the narrow ‘academic’ curriculum, imposed on schools by Michael Gove. The Francis Review has recommended some changes but its main foundations will still be in place. He’s also right about the current low status given to technical and vocational courses. Yet there are, despite what some of […]
Despite the fanfare around the Milburn report, the Labour frontbench has said little new or shown any real urgency. The DWP put a junior minister on TV this week to officially announce the government plan to offer 300,000 work placements (these can be relatively short, even just a week). This decision, part of Labour’s Youth […]
Well before coming to office, Labour signalled its intention to address the ‘NEETs problem’. In government, it commissioned ex-minister Alan Milburn (previously employed by the Tories to try and improve social mobility) for a ‘review’. On the day his ‘interim’ report was published, ONS figures showed over a million 16–24-year-olds as NEET (13.5%) but 15.8% […]
Employment minister Pat McFadden has announced additions to Labour’s ‘Youth Guarantee’ Coming out at around £1 billion, with an emphasis on incentivising rather than penalising, these proposals constitute at best, a small step in the right direction, at worst, another short-term solution to longer terms issues and likely to reduce the government’s credibility still further. […]
Labour market data released this week shows the UK jobless rate increasing to a post-pandemic peak of 5.2 %. According to the Office for National Statistics, youth unemployment has now reached 16.1% the highest in more than a decade even if it’s always been much higher than unemployment generally. These numbers for 16–24-year-olds are of […]
books and articles by Martin Allen 