The teenagers will receive technical training in the Premier League. Royal Shakespeare Company and Channel 4 as part of a government campaign to get hundreds of thousands of people into employment or education and ensure “no young person is left behind”.
Some of Britain's biggest cultural and sporting institutions will provide work or training opportunities as part of a £45m “pioneering” scheme across eight English regions including Liverpool, Tees Valley and the East Midlands.
Ministers announced radical changes to the social care system and support for the unemployed on Tuesday, as part of a plan to get more people into work and reduce the social care bill, which has risen since the Covid crisis, with more than 9 million people. now economically inactive.
However, new measures to reform the multi-billion pound health and disability benefits system are not expected until next year. The government has already said it will respect Tory proposals to make £3bn in cuts, but will do so through its own reforms.
The Labor Party wants to address the problem that one in eight young people aged 18 to 24 are not in education, work or training. Ministers have already warned they will lose their benefits if they refuse to take advantage of the opportunities.
“Almost a million young people do not earn or learn. That's bad for them and bad for the country. It is time for this change,” said Liz Kendall, Work and Pensions Secretary.
“These organizations are already doing inspiring work with disadvantaged young people and helping them develop the skills and confidence to move forward. “We need to champion this and build on it, because our young people deserve the best start in life.”
There are around 70,000 young people aged 18 to 21 on universal credit in the pilot scheme areas who could be eligible for vocational training, although ministers hope the “youth guarantee” could eventually be introduced to around 340,000 young people across the country. country.
Wide-ranging measures to tackle economic inactivity will be announced in the Get Britain Working white paper, backed by £240m of funding. The Labor Party has promised to increase the employment rate from 75% to 80%, which will bring around 2 million more people into work.
As well as providing additional capacity to reduce waiting lists across all 20 NHS trusts in areas with the highest levels of economic inactivity, Kendall's plans include an expansion of mental health support and a greater focus on prevention to avoid make people sick in the first place.
A record 2.8 million people are out of work due to long-term illnesses. The plan includes three NHS accelerators to prevent people being thrown out of work due to health problems, and will be trialled in the North East of England, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.
As well as focusing on improving health, job centers in England will be replaced by a new £55 million national employment and careers service, which is expected to focus more on helping people get back to work rather than simply manage and monitor benefit applications.
Job center staff will have more flexibility to offer a more personalized service to job seekers, as well as access to new training academies to learn more skills (including artificial intelligence tools) to better help people find work.
However, the ambition to move away from the “tick box” culture in job centers and towards staff being highly trained and having strong contacts with local employers is unlikely to materialize overnight.
The previous government closed dozens of employment centers in recent years, making it more difficult for many people to get the support offered to them without having to travel long distances.
Mayors and councils in the eight pilot areas will be given new powers to bring together local work, health and skills support in ways that meet the specific needs of their local areas, supported by £125 million in funding.
An independent review into how employers can be better supported in recruiting disabled people and keeping them in the workplace will also be launched, due to conclude next summer.
The UK is the only major economy where the employment rate has fallen over the past five years, largely because more people are out of work due to long-term health problems and because the employment support system is not prepared to respond to the growing challenge. .
Keir Starmer said the reforms would “end the culture of blaming and shaming people who for too long have not received the support they need to get back to work” and help people get into “decent, well-paid jobs”.
The Prime Minister ruled out calling another general election after more than 2 million people signed a petition on parliament's website calling for one, but said he was “not surprised” that some people who did not support the Labor Party wanted a second. choice.
“Look, I remind myself that a lot of people didn't vote Labor in the last election,” he told ITV's This Morning programme. “I'm not surprised that many of them want a repeat. That's not how our system works.
“There will be a lot of people who didn't want us in the first place. So, I focus on the decisions I have to make every day.”
Starmer acknowledged that his first few months in office had been difficult, but added: “I wouldn't trade a day in opposition for a day in power. “It is much better to be in power to do things, than the frustration, as I found it, in the opposition during all those long years when we could simply say what we would do.”
While the vast majority of those signing the petition are from the United Kingdom, it has also gained support from other countries, with more than 1,200 people from the United States adding their name and a similar number from France.
The American signatories may have been informed of the petition by Elon Musk, an ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, who shared it on his social media platform X. Downing Street has tried to avoid being drawn into a war of words with the billionaire businessman.
