Bars, clubs and restaurants will offer up to 100,000 jobs to young people not in employment, education or training (Neet) over the next three years in an effort to give them a first step on the ladder into work.
The move comes before the publication of a report on Neets by the former health secretary Alan Milburn, who has warned that the number of young people not in work or education in the UK could rise to 1.25 million over the next five years unless ministers intervene.
His full review into Britain’s crisis in youth unemployment, including recommendations to the government about how to tackle the crisis, is expected soon after the autumn budget on 28 October.
Working with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), hospitality businesses including the restaurant chains Wagamama, Nando’s and Burger King, the hotel chain Premier Inn and pub chains including Fuller’s and Mitchells & Butlers will offer Neets aged 18 to 24 placements of up to four weeks to gain “the skills and confidence needed to take their first step into work”.
The initiative, which will be launched by Andy Burnham during a visit to a hospitality venue on Thursday, comes after the DWP announced a similar scheme for retailers including Marks & Spencer, Asda, Pets at Home and the John Lewis Partnership last month.
The work and pensions secretary, Pat McFadden, said the scheme would help young people “get their first step on the ladder” and build their careers. “With the UK employment rate now the second highest in the G7, this will unlock 100,000 jobs and connect young people with employers ready to take them on and help them build a brighter future,” he said.
Lucy Powell, the education secretary, is expected to announce a review of school exclusion changes, after research showed that students who are persistently absent from school are nearly four times more likely to end up unemployed and not in education or training.
A consultation will gather views on measures to support students at risk of exclusion, improve integration into the classroom and help children stay engaged in the classroom.
Powell said: “Absence and exclusion are too often a path to disengagement, with increased risks of becoming Neet. Too many young people who fall out of education risk being permanently left on the sidelines of work and opportunity.”
Milburn has signalled that Britain’s benefits system should be overhauled, alongside measures to boost job support, training and apprenticeships. Ministers are understood to be considering sweeping changes to the welfare system, including scrapping a critical disability benefit for under-25s and replacing it with a multibillion-pound package of support to get into work.
Milburn has previously argued that a national apprenticeship readiness scheme should be introduced in England to close the gap for young people between leaving school and starting work.
The chancellor, John Healey, has indicated a readiness to curtail the government’s rising benefits bill, while McFadden has said there is a moral and economic case to shake up the welfare system, as the war in the Middle East rattles the public finances.
The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, has made demands for cuts to welfare a central plank of her attacks on the government, telling Burnham in prime minister’s questions (PMQs) on Wednesday that he should cut welfare to fund higher defence spending.
But ministers will be wary of going head to head with Labour MPs, and will hope to avoid a repeat of the welfare rebellion that forced Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves into an embarrassing and costly U-turn.
