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Youth Employment & NEETs

by Owen Donovan

September 3, 2026

in Issues, The Economy

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Image Source: Working Wales via LinkedIN

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Youth Employment & NEETs

Is this devolved to Wales?

Where is this happening?

What's happening?

Why is this happening?

Who has been affected?

What's happening?

Why is this happening?

Who has been affected?

Estimated 16 to 24 year olds not in education, employment or training in Wales (NEET) by economic activity and age group (custom table)

Pupil destinations from schools in Wales, Year 11/16-year-olds (2025)

Pupil destinations from schools in Wales, Year 13/18-year-olds (2025)

£ 00 million Total

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Explanation
Etc

Who has raised this at the Senedd?

Rhun ap Iorwerth MS

First Minister

Adam Price MS

Enterprise & Energy Minister

Cefin Campbell MS

Deputy Minister for Skills

Sera Evans MS

Chair: Education & Young People

Zaynub Akbar MS

Chair: Equality & Social Justice

Kiera Marshall MS

Backbencher

Niamh Salkeld MS

Backbencher

Ben McKenna MS

Shadow Health Minister

Thomas Montgomery MS

Shadow Skills Minister

Jason O'Connell MS

Shadow Economy Minister

Joshua Kim MS

Backbencher

Shav Taj MS

Backbencher

Mike Hedges MS

Backbencher

Vikki Howells MS

Senedd Commissioner

Lynne Neagle MS

Labour Whip

Sam Rowlands MS

Chair: Finance

Janet Finch-Saunders MS

Backbencher

Paul Rock MS

Backbencher

Jane Dodds MS

Backbencher

Rhun ap Iorwerth MS

First Minister

Adam Price MS

Enterprise & Energy Minister

Cefin Campbell MS

Deputy Minister for Skills

Sera Evans MS

Chair: Education & Young People

Zaynub Akbar MS

Chair: Equality & Social Justice

Kiera Marshall MS

Backbencher

Niamh Salkeld MS

Backbencher

Ben McKenna MS

Shadow Health Minister

Thomas Montgomery MS

Shadow Skills Minister

Jason O'Connell MS

Shadow Economy Minister

Joshua Kim MS

Backbencher

Mike Hedges MS

Backbencher

Vikki Howells MS

Senedd Commissioner

Lynne Neagle MS

Labour Whip

Shav Taj MS

Backbencher

Sam Rowlands MS

Chair: Finance

Janet Finch-Saunders MS

Backbencher

Paul Rock MS

Backbencher

Jane Dodds MS

Backbencher

What are the party positions on this?

Plaid Cymru backbenchers have backed improved focus on education and vocational training places as a way to address youth unemployment.

We have a diverse offer out there for our young people, and hopefully that's only going to grow over this Senedd term, but Cardiff and Vale College tell me they've got learners on waiting lists and they're having to turn young people away or put them on courses that don't align with their preferences, which will only worsen the issue of young people not in education, employment or training. And similarly, unless our young people know about the breadth of the opportunities available to them and what they can aspire to be, they cannot possibly make decisions on it.

We also need a skills system that reflects both young people's aspirations and the needs of Welsh employers. Strong foundations in reading, writing and mathematics remain essential, but vocational education and apprenticeships must be valued equally and linked to clear pathways into secure, high-quality employment. As our economy changes, new opportunities will also emerge in green industries, advanced manufacturing, health and care, and digital innovation. We must ensure young people from every part of Wales can access those opportunities regardless of where they might live.

Reform UK believe the hospitality and service sectors are important in providing first jobs to many young people. They have also raised the issue of graduate under-employment.

But I do think that we can all come together to recognise that programmes like Jobs Growth Wales and ReAct aren't enough to get our students through the process into producing high-quality jobs for employers. Too often these programmes have become a revolving door of courses, placements and paperwork, rather than a genuine route into secure employment and training. Now, of course it's not enough for me to say what we wouldn't do; we are the party that tells the public exactly what we would do.

A Scottish longitudinal study found that young people who are NEET at 16 to 19 were 2.8 times as likely to be unemployed or economically inactive 10 years later. At the societal level, with an ageing population, we need our young people to be productive as older generations leave the workforce. Also, we should develop the skills and potential of young people already living here, rather than relying on recruiting workers from overseas to support an ageing population.

We must recognise the importance of a young person's first part-time job, working as a pot wash or waiting tables….The tourism and hospitality industry is a vital piece of the puzzle on this issue. I, like many others across Wales, worked in the hospitality sector. I held down a little part-time job from the age of 15, working around school, on weekends and in the evenings. And I recognised that my experience in this sector, working in pubs, restaurants, cafes in a variety of roles, gave me skills that no classroom could teach.

In China, a social phenomenon occurred called tang ping, which translates roughly to 'lie flat', which was essentially the mass revolt of young people to disengage with the economy as much as possible, refuse to engage in the oppressive working structure…This ended up getting so severe that the President of China had to do a televised public address, effectively begging young people, for the good of the country, to accept jobs that they were overqualified for, to beg university graduates to do things like work in food delivery. I fear that if we allow things to continue in this country, we could end up in a similar situation for young people.

Labour jointly tabled the debate on youth employment, and support expanding existing programmes like the Young Person’s Guarantee. They have added concerns about a shortage of vocational training courses at FE colleges.

One in six young people are not in work, not in education or training, and that should really wind each and every one of us up and make us angry enough to want to do something about it and to work together on these issues, because youth unemployment is not a fringe issue. It is actually the symptom of a systemic failure, bigger than any one policy, bigger than any department or Government, and clearly, now, it demands an even bigger and better response.

The young person's guarantee that was rolled out, when we were coming out of the COVID pandemic, helped around 10,000 young people to get into work; 30,000 apprenticeships were started; and more people were helped to further their education or even start their own business. But clearly, though, that guarantee hasn't been universally effective. So, it hasn't done all the things that we were hoping to do. Only around half of the people that were supported through these various schemes actually went on to achieve a positive outcome.

We need plumbers, we need hairdressers, we need electricians, we need decorators. We know we need those. In Britain, there were 981,000 young people aged 16 to 24 not in employment, education or training between April and June, according to the Office for National Statistics. But what shifts have happened there? We've got a lost generation of young people, and they're going to be lost forever unless urgent action is taken. And that really does fall on the Welsh Government to start taking some of this action.

So, there are 400 learners (at Coleg y Cymoedd) at level 1 and level 2 who are not on their first-choice courses. That, in itself, represents a risk of disengagement. And for the first year ever, that particular campus has 40 learners that they haven't been able to place that are on a waiting list and unable to be enrolled, in real danger of disengaging from education forever. There were 80 learners there who they were only able to place on courses for two days a week. They would really like to be able to place them for much longer than that, and, of course, the less time they are placed in college, the more the risk of disengagement.

The Conservatives believe that there are multiple different factors driving youth unemployment. They have also expressed concerns about a shortage of vocational course places.

We need to work with education providers to expand the choice of courses available to young people, particularly in STEM subjects and apprenticeships. We need to take action to address mobile blackspots and poor broadband speeds, so that our young people in remote and rural communities aren't left behind and their studies aren't hindered. Crucially, we need to look at the problem with young people and unemployment in the round, starting with the improving of our education system, finishing with fixing our economy.

In my own constituency, there are around 1,000 students currently in colleges without the funding in place to provide the support that they need. We've failed to fund that demand. We risk fewer places, fewer courses and less support for the young people that I talked about right at the opening of my contribution today, which are those young people who aren't in work, those young people who aren't currently in training and aren't able to see that future that we need them to be able to see. The risk is a NEET crisis getting worse and not better.

The Green party believe that there will be lots of opportunities for training and apprenticeships driven by new, low-carbon industries and home retrofitting.

Much can be said about the barriers facing young people, from low pay and insecure work to a lack of progression opportunities, but I want to focus on the opportunities being created by our climate commitments, and the good-quality jobs that can come with them. As Greens, we see meeting our climate commitments not as a burden, but as a huge opportunity. It can create thousands of long-term skilled jobs.

Jane Dodds supports an increase in the number of suitable training places, believing the Young Person’s Guarantee hasn’t lived up to its promise at the start.

They (young people) do point to the barriers that there are: poor mental health, financial pressures, employers asking for experience that they've never been given the opportunity to gain. These are not inevitable problems, but policy failures, and we want them to be fixed. I have three areas just to highlight. Firstly, as has been pointed out by many of the speakers, we must address the shortage of education and training places. The young person's guarantee is an important commitment, but it is only meaningful if opportunities exist behind the promise.

Who is responsible?

Adam Price MS

Enterprise & Energy Minister

What have ministers said?

We should be precise about who these people are, because the diagnosis determines what the treatment should be. They are not from a single group. Around a third are unemployed in the conventional sense, looking for work but unable to find it. Around two thirds are economically inactive, not looking for work or unable to work. And in this context, illness, and above all mental illness, has become one of the fastest growing drivers. Those who left education the earliest are the most likely to remain disengaged from the labour market the longest.

One of the key questions for me is how long after disengaging does the system first reach a young person…..'ve asked my officials to establish that number precisely. In designing any policy, of course investment matters, but as the Member for Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf said, outcomes matter more. The measure of success is not the number of job starts or the people on a programme that we can count, but whether a young person is still in good work or learning six months on, and 12 months on.

....we need a wider approach, especially around that 70 per cent who have various difficulties in becoming active in looking for employment. We need to reduce the number of learners not in education, training and employment, but we need to involve other key partners as well, like apprenticeship providers and so on. We need to work closely with the business sector to ensure that employers are giving opportunities to young people to have a softer approach to work experience, and then maybe apprenticeships as well.

What's being done about this?

What do the Welsh Government want to do?

Does this need a new law or regulations?

How long will this take?

What do the Welsh Government want to do?

Does this need a new law or regulations?

How long will this take?

What have the Senedd's Committees said?

Nothing has been discussed yet.

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Relevant Votes

Date	Motion Number	Subject	Tabled As	Binding Vote?	Votes For	Abstentions	Votes Against	Absent/No Vote	Outcome
15/07/26	NDM9247	Support measures to address youth unemployment		No	51	6	31	6	AGREED

Further Reading

Working Wales. “Post-16 options and support“
UK Department of Education (May 2026). “Risk factors for becoming NEET“

Related Issues

Apprenticeships

Education & Childcare

Apprenticeships

by Owen Donovan

September 30, 2026

Tags: CON-03 CON-05 ECON 05 GR-02 LB-02 LB-06 LB-08 LB-09 LD-01 National PC-01 PC-08-M PC-15 PC-16 PC-22 PC-24 PC-26 RF-05 RF-15 RF-19 RF-25