UKCES

The UK Commission has been charged by Commissioners to investigate the kind of activities, including improved education / employer engagement that most effectively support young people into employment, particularly those who are likely to be furthest from the labour market. DWP, the Welsh Government and the Scottish Government have also explicitly identified youth employment as an area for the Commission to focus on.

The Youth Inquiry focuses on three key questions:

1. Who and where are the young (16-24) unemployed/inactive
2. What works from an employer perspective in employing young people?
3. How well are the current initiatives aimed at employers working?

With the number of stakeholders involved in the project there are a number of strands of work to the inquiry. The first strand of work involves analysis of who and where the young unemployed are and the employer’s perspective on recruiting young people. This involved a cross-sectional and time-series analysis as well as extensive analysis of the National Employer Skills Survey for England (NESS).

Other strands of work are also underway to look at ‘How well are the current initiatives aimed at employers working?’. For this piece of work we are interviewing a number of Commissioner Companies and are working with Jobcentre Plus to engage in feedback with a large number of employers who are currently using these government initiatives.

The final report will be published in the autumn.

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