Westminster Life: We need to do more for our young people
“This is not a failure of young people, but of a system that has not kept pace with modern work”
Helping young people get a first foot on the jobs ladder is a mission of mine. We need to work together to create jobs and opportunities in Peterborough and across the country, writes MP Andrew Pakes.
Before I became an MP, I worked helping people into apprenticeships. I saw first‑hand how, in a place like ours, apprenticeship numbers fell under the last government. We need to turn that around.
That is why Alan Milburn’s report this week is such a sobering read. It sets out the long‑term challenge of over one million young people not in education, employment or training, the horrid label “NEETs”. In Peterborough we have some of the highest levels of youth unemployment in England. It is why I fought for the Youth Guarantee here, bringing up to £10 million over two years to kick‑start how we support young people.
Every week I meet young people in Peterborough who are doing everything right, studying, volunteering, sending off applications - yet still struggling to get that first job. Employers tell me they cannot fill vacancies, while young people say they cannot get the experience or support they need to take those roles. Something is clearly not working.
Behind the statistics are real lives: the young person who never quite gets an interview, the college leaver whose Saturday job disappears, the apprentice who cannot find the next placement. Milburn calls this a “generational fault line”, as the number of entry‑level and mid‑skilled jobs has shrunk and the first rung on the ladder has thinned out.
This is not a failure of young people, but of a system that has not kept pace with modern work. Too many young people with health problems, caring responsibilities or additional needs find themselves bounced between services rather than supported into work. That will sound familiar to anyone who has tried to navigate the system on behalf of a teenager or young adult in our city.
The good news is that we are already changing things locally. Over the past year we have been building a joined‑up approach with clear routes into work and practical support. The youth employment hub at Peterborough United, the JobSmart programme at Peterborough College and new investment in skills and apprenticeships are already making a difference by bringing together the DWP, the council, colleges and employers under one roof. ARU Peterborough is redesigning higher education around the needs of local employers and learners.
The Government’s Youth Guarantee and Youth Jobs Grant will provide extra backing for this work, including support for employers who take on young people. For a city like ours, with big employers in sectors from engineering to green technology, this is a real opportunity, but only if those schemes work on the ground, not just on paper.
With the right support and the right priorities from government, we can turn today’s warning signs into tomorrow’s success stories. That is what I will keep fighting for: a city where every young person has a fair start, and a country that never gives up on the next generation.