Thousands of young people receiving their exam results will be weighing up their next steps.
Whatever grades they achieve, one thing I’m sure we would all agree on is that they deserve the best possible chance of success in their lives and careers.
We need our young people to feel optimistic and there will be lots of hope for the future among those finding out how they did in their A Levels, T Levels and GCSEs.
Sadly, there will be some trepidation too – not just about how well or otherwise they may have done in these exams, but over their longer-term prospects.
The struggles of young people not in education, employment, or training have been well documented through Alan Milburn’s review of the NEETs problem faced by this country.
His recent report warned that nearly 1 million young people in the UK are NEET. The government is addressing this through the Youth Guarantee of training, work experience, or placement opportunities for young people. This includes the creation of 300,000 new work experience and training placements in sectors like construction, health and social care and hospitality.
Skills England is determined to play our part too. We’ve worked with businesses, training providers and other partners over the past year to make sure skills training, for our emerging workforce, is high quality and responsive to the needs of a modern economy. This has included the rollout of new programmes such as the Level 4 AI and Automation Practitioner apprenticeship, alongside flexible apprenticeship units focused on AI leadership and strategy.
A key priority for everyone is redressing a 40% decline in youth apprenticeship starts over the past decade.
We used to hear concerns about whether young people wanted apprenticeships. The reality is now the opposite.
On average, there are more than ten applicants for every vacancy advertised through the government’s Find An Apprenticeship service, with many high-profile companies receiving thousands of applications for their programmes.
So, demand is vastly outstripping supply and we need many more large and small businesses to invest in apprenticeships.
For me, it’s a no-brainer. Once you get past the hump of worrying about how to sign up – through a process we are helping to simplify – then you see fast returns.
Skilled staff are more productive – the estimated yearly gain for businesses can be as much as £18,000 per apprentice.
I saw first-hand, when I ran Cisco UK and Ireland, how investing in young people re-invigorated our workforce. Their energy, fresh perspectives and willingness to learn was infectious. Apprenticeships also provide the opportunity to embed people into your company culture, which we found fostered a lot of loyalty.
T Level students will be getting their results on Thursday, 13 August. A big reason why these qualifications have bedded in well, since their launch six years ago, has been the substantial work experience involved.
They offer a mixture of classroom learning and ‘on-the-job’ experience during an industry placement of at least 315 hours (approximately 45 days).
Offering these placements is another excellent way for businesses to refresh their workforce. Around a quarter of students, who progress from T Levels into work, get their jobs with their industry placement employer.
For example, Lloyds Banking Group has been a long-term supporter of T Level, growing from providing six placements in 2022 to more than 100 annually over the past three years.
Around half of their placement students have progressed into permanent roles. John Banks, their T Levels manager, reflected that this has helped Lloyds build a workforce which “better reflects the communities we serve and creates opportunities for talented young people who may not have considered a career with us otherwise”.
Skills training is really good for business and Britain has no shortage of enthusiastic and talented young people and I'd like to congratulate all those collecting their results.
But I would also like to take this opportunity to invite many more employers to draw inspiration from all the optimism surrounding exam results and check out how to invest in young people today.
seen at 18:30, 13 August in Skills England.