Press Release: Number of NEETs passes one million
New statistics published today reveal that the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) has passed one million, after rising by more than 120,000 in the last three months.
In the third quarter of 2009, 1.082m people aged 16-24 were NEET, compared with 959,000 in the previous quarter. The proportion of young people who are NEET has jumped from 15.9% last quarter to 18.0% this quarter.
In a major speech to the Association of Colleges Conference today, Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary David Willetts will set out how a future Conservative Government would tackle the crisis in skills training for young people:
“It is shocking that more than a million young people are not in any kind of employment or training. It is a damning indictment of the Government’s failure to help young people during the recession.
“Despite all Gordon Brown’s guarantees and pledges, the number of young people neither earning nor learning is increasing at a rate of more than 9,000 a week.
“Ministers must stop making empty gestures that do so little to help young people. I will today set out how we will get the skills system to respond more effectively to the lack of opportunities for our young people by freeing up colleges to help them.”
Notes to editors:
New NEET figures were published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills this morning: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/STR/d000890/index.shtml