Reading Alan Milburn’s interim findings on young people who are not in education, employment or training, I felt a real sense of recognition. The reasons behind the current NEET crisis are varied and complex but I am struck by how much infrastructure connecting education and employment has quietly disappeared over the last twenty years. The challenge the Milburn Review describes is not only about new external pressures on young people but, in part, the accumulating consequences of that neglect. From the late 1980s onwards, there was extensive engagement between schools, colleges and employers. Lord Young, as Secretary of State for Employment, drove early initiatives to connect business and education. The Department of Trade and Industry’s Enterprise and Education programme developed that further, with researchers at Warwick University creating an evidence base for what good employer engagement looked like.
By the 1990s, a nationwide network of Education Business Partnerships (EBPs) had taken root nationwide. Edge’s Learning from the Past research gives a sense of the scale and ambition. Within two years of the first partnerships launching, EBPs were operating in 78% of local education authorities. I was privileged to spend nearly two decades leading The EBP in Lincolnshire & Rutland and saw what this work did not just for young people’s CVs but for their sense of what was possible. That’s what makes the current picture so difficult to face. During this time, almost all young people had opportunities for work experience, employer contact, mentoring and exposure to varied career pathways – all things policymakers agree young people should have access to today. Crucially, these opportunities were available across primary, secondary, special schools and colleges – not just in the final years of secondary, as has become the focus now. Whilst there was plenty of goodwill, this was underpinned by professional infrastructure. Trained staff, safeguarding frameworks, health & safety structures, and so on.
The Institute of Employability Professionals emerged, in part, to provide accreditation and a professional framework for those working in EBPs. This was skilled, specialist work. As locally-rooted brokers between education and business, EBPs freed teachers to teach and employers to engage, without either having to take on impossible burdens. The professional standing of the people who delivered this work is often overlooked. Finally, and most importantly, these programmes didn’t just ease the transition between education and adult working life. They provided social capital for young people who did not have access to professional networks, business contacts or workplace role models through family or community connections. They opened doors and broadened horizons for many young people whose experience of employment would have otherwise been extremely limited.
Today, much of this ecosystem has vanished. Its gradual decline is one of the less-recognised factors contributing to the current NEET crisis. Most young people now have far less direct engagement with employers, workplaces and adult mentors than their predecessors did through the support of EBPs. While the nature of work has undoubtedly shifted, the absence of structures that once helped young people navigate this transition has made it far harder than it needs to be.
I am glad to say some EBPs still exist. However, across the country, fewer than 30 remain from a network that once numbered around 100. They also vary widely in scale, from 2-3 staff to larger organisations with around 15-20 staff. It is tremendous that these organisations are still doing committed and important work in such challenging circumstances. The Association of Education Business Professionals (AEBP) – a national network of specialist education-business organisations that grew from the EBP movement and which Edge has long supported – continues to demonstrate what this work can achieve. Its members facilitate countless work experience placements, engaging thousands of employers and reaching hundreds of thousands of young people every year.
At the same time, the appetite for connecting employers with schools has never gone away, as the Careers and Enterprise Company demonstrates. Their careers hubs built on core aspects of the EBP model. Compared to the past, they lack the necessary support to go as far in the area of employer engagement as they could. Nevertheless, despite today’s limitations, The CEC and the AEBP represent complementary parts of a landscape that has kept this work alive. The model works. The question is one of scale, funding and support.
Edge is actively engaging with the Milburn Review. The signs are encouraging. Learning from recent history and Edge’s work on apprenticeship brokerage hubs (part of our Apprenticeships Work campaign) we see the Review as a rare opportunity to do more.
This is our chance to recommit to employer engagement in education and to rebuild the workforce capable of delivering it. Exactly how this looks in the modern world must be carefully defined. But it will almost certainly include a national funding commitment, and greater support for existing and emerging hubs and brokerage schemes that connect education to employers. We must also ensure that support is available around the country and proportionate to need, rather than just in the patches where it currently exists. I have seen firsthand what happens when young people are given a genuine connection to the world of employment. When they discover opportunities beyond their immediate experience, they build confidence, aspiration and ambition. It’s time to give it back to them.
Written by
Elaine Lilley MBE, Chair of the Board of Trustees, Edge Foundation