Young People and Work Report

9. What recent progress has been made on the young people and work report.

The right hon. Alan Milburn is making progress on his report. He brings valuable experience as a former Secretary of State for Health and former chair of the Government’s Social Mobility Commission. He is engaging with stakeholders across the country to increase the understanding of what has driven the increase in NEETs in recent years, and his interim report is due later in the spring.

With almost 8% of 16 and 17-year-olds not in education, employment or training, Derbyshire is the worst county in the east midlands for NEET. In New Stanton Park in Ilkeston, on the former site of a once-famous ironworks, major investments are bringing good manufacturing jobs back to Erewash. Will the Secretary of State share the work he is doing to ensure that apprenticeships are available to disadvantaged young people so that they can thrive, instead of being left behind?

My hon. Friend brings valuable experience to this matter, including his experience of teaching engineering apprentices at the University of Nottingham. We are committed to ensuring that disadvantaged young people have access to high-quality apprenticeships and can benefit from the new jobs being created in places such as Erewash as a result of the changes in how the growth and skills levy is used—as I have explained in response to earlier questions—and the extension of youth hubs in the region to give young people who may not be claiming benefit or undertaking an apprenticeship the chance of finding that vital first job.

Sophia, whom I spoke to in my constituency office in Winchester this morning, is one of many recent graduates—often with really good degrees from really good universities—who have been applying for hundreds of jobs and not even receiving replies. Has the Department carried out an assessment of the impact of artificial intelligence, in all its forms, on graduate employment prospects over the next few years? What work has been done with universities and institutions that offer apprenticeships to ensure that young people are graduating with the right set of skills to be able to work in this era of artificial intelligence?

The hon. Member has posed a very good and important question, and the issue of graduate unemployment is by no means confined to the UK. In the United States, for example, a similar debate about graduate unemployment is taking place. The truth is that structural developments are happening in the labour market. Technology is undergoing a big shift, and I think that all Governments must ask themselves how to help young people through this transition. The one thing that we cannot do is abandon them to it: we have to train people, and we have to ensure that the UK is best placed to take advantage of this big technological shift.