This snapshot, taken on 07/04/2010, shows web content selected for preservation by The National Archives. External links, forms and search boxes may not work in archived websites.
Newsroom & speeches
29 March 2006
Thank you for coming – it’s certainly a pleasure to welcome you all today to the Treasury, so we can celebrate the progress we’ve made so far. Let me also welcome Maria and Margaret who will say a few words in a moment.
Earlier today, Maria and I visited Centrepoint and we had the chance to speak with several young people, who were keen to speak with us and to participate in formal learning. They were ambitious to achieve, but they are in a cycle of disadvantage – and they have been let down by the system.
This is unacceptable. It is our duty as public servants to try to rectify this – and it is our obligation to do our utmost for these young people.
That’s why we have taken action to help support the NEET group. We seek to ensure that every young person reaches the age of 19 – not just ready for higher education or skilled employment, but able to realise their full potential.
And to do that, we’re talking about skills. Getting this right is important for individuals – to help them provide economic security for their families, to seize job opportunities where possible, and to genuinely build on their own personal fulfilment.
It’s important for our country too. The right skills to operate and thrive in a modern, dynamic economy are essential – the right skills to increase our national productivity, and to add to our labour market flexibility can make all the difference between global mediocrity and global excellence.
The system of financial support for young people can play an important part in this. 16 to 19 year olds don’t want to be excluded and left on the sidelines, the Make Poverty History and Year of the Volunteer campaigns have shown that.
We don’t want it either. That’s why we will ensure that young people have effective incentives and real support to participate in education and training. It is why we launched a review to identify just where the system could do better on this.
And during that review, we’ve listened to a wide range of opinions. We’ve heard from experts, from those who work with young people and from young people themselves.
That consultation process started with the 2004 Budget, and I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have helped out with that. Your work has genuinely helped inform and shape the reforms activating next month.
Thanks also to all of the partners from the Activity Agreement and Learning Agreement pilots – as well as those who have helped establish the evidence on why and how to extend financial support to these groups.
Since the review began, we have taken significant steps to help young people in work and waged training – and to guarantee decent, minimum income levels.
For example, we introduced a National Minimum Wage for 16-17s at £3 per hour. Last week, we accepted the Low Pay Commission’s recommendation to increase this to £3.30 from October 2006.
Full-time work is the second best option to an appropriate course of education or training and our youngest workers should not be left vulnerable to exploitation.
That’s why the Learning & Skills Council have worked to achieve minimum pay levels for apprentices in England too – and to require providers to ensure they receive at least £80 per week.
This Government does not want a situation where a young person – who is still in non-advanced education or training at the age of 19 – has almost finished their course when financial support simply stops, forcing them to drop out.
And we all recognise that classroom-based learning is not the best learning route for all young people – and we will take action to remove the distinction between education and unwaged training.
That’s why from next month the government will extend Child Benefit, alongside the Child Tax Credit and the Education Maintenance Allowance to unwaged trainees.
It’s why we will extend Child Benefit, Child Tax Credit and Income Support to 19 year olds finishing a course of education or training.
Margaret and Maria will talk about the Activity and Learning pilots in a moment. Let me simply say that engaging the most disadvantaged and isolated young people – those not in education, employment and training – is vital for our social cohesion, and for our social justice.
The young people who we met today are a real testimony to how these changes will make a real and lasting improvement with participation and achievement through learning.
We can never be complacent on such a matter – and there is still more to be done, still more for us to deliver.
And that’s why this afternoon, after all our speeches, there’s a chance to break off into discussion groups – to identify what you think the barriers are to achieving a single, coherent system of financial support for 16-19s.
These will be drawn together into a discussion document, circulated afterwards, and I can assure you we will take a keen interest in your views.
I would also like to announce that this autumn there will be a series of seminars with an opportunity to look at these issues in more depth.
Your attendance today is welcome. But your assistance in supporting and pushing the review has been invaluable. I look forward to continuing this partnership as the review enters its next phase.
Thank you.
