Youth Guarantee

In November 2024, the UK Government published the Get Britain Working White Paper which contained various initiatives to support more people into work. As part of the white paper, the government said it will establish a Youth Guarantee. This was in response to an increase in the number of young people who were not in education, employment or training (NEET).

Through this guarantee, the government will ensure that young people have access to further learning, help to get a job or an apprenticeship, and this support will be available across Great Britain.

On the 16 March 2026 the government announced further components to the Youth Guarantee, and referred to these as a “New Deal” for young people.

Trailblazer areas

The government has put in place ‘trailblazer’ areas that will trial the new initiatives contained in the white paper, including eight areas that will trial the Youth Guarantee. These are in the following mayoral authorities: Liverpool City Region, West Midlands, Tees Valley, East Midlands, West of England, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough and two in London.

The trials will run for 12 months, with £45 million provided in 2025/26 for them, and the Youth Guarantee will then be rolled out across the rest of England. The trials will aim to identify young people most at risk of becoming NEET, and to support them into education, training or work. Various proposals will be tested with the aim of maximising participation in the Youth Guarantee. The learning from these trials will then be used to help with the future development of the Youth Guarantee.

Youth Guarantee components

In the Autumn Budget 2025 the government announced funding of £820 million over the spending review period (the three years from 2026/27 to 2028/29). This was part of a £1.5 billion funding package to cover employment and skills support.

The £820 million would fund the following components of the Youth Guarantee over these three years:

• Jobs Guarantee: this provides six months of paid work to eligible 18 to 21-year-olds who have been receiving Universal Credit for 18 months without earning or learning. It will be rolled out in the following areas: Birmingham and Solihull, East Midlands, Greater Manchester, Hertfordshire and Essex, Central & East Scotland and Southwest and Southeast Wales. The government has said this will provide employment for “around 55,000 young people over the next three years”, and “over 1,000 starts across six areas in the first six months”. The government initially said the jobs guarantee would begin to be rolled out from spring 2026. At the beginning of May, the ‘delivery partners’ that had been selected for each area were announced.
• Youth Guarantee Gateway: this will provide Universal Credit claimants aged 16 to 24 with a “dedicated support session”, followed by four additional weeks of intensive support. The government has said that around 900,000 young people will be offered this support over the three years.
• Guaranteed college or further education (FE) provider place: the government has said it will automatically allocate a young person a place at a local college or FE provider if they do not have a post-16 study plan when they leave school at age 16 or 17.
• Youth hubs: these offer support for up to six months from a youth hub work coach. In September 2025, the government said it will provide £25 million to “almost double” the number of youth hubs to “over 200 places across England, Scotland and Wales in the next three years.”. In December 2025, the government said youth hubs “will be expanded to every local area of Great Britain”, meaning there would be over 360 hubs. In January 2026, there were 114 full opened youth hubs, which was 14 more than in January 2025.
• Workplace experience and training: the government intends to create up to 150,000 additional work experience placements for young people and up to 145,000 additional places on the Sector based work academy programme (SWAP) over the three years. This programme is available to Universal Credit claimants and provides pre-employment training, work experience and potentially a job interview.
• Apprenticeships: various changes have been made to the apprenticeship system to encourage employers to take on young apprentices. This includes the introduction of foundation apprenticeships, which the government described as an “important first step” towards the Youth Guarantee. Additionally, from April 2026, the government has said that it will cover the full cost of apprenticeships for 16 to 24-year-olds for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs).

In March 2026, the government announced an additional £1 billion of funding in employment and skills support over the spending review period. This will fund the following expansions to the Youth Guarantee:

• The Jobs Guarantee will be expanded so that it includes all young people aged 18 to 24, and will support an additional 35,000 young people, or 90,000 in total.
• The introduction of a Youth Jobs Grant. This will provide a grant of £3,000 to employers for every young person they take on who is aged 18 to 24 and who has been on Universal Credit and been looking for work for six months. The government expect 60,000 young people to be taken on by businesses over the next three years as result of this grant.
• The introduction of a new apprenticeship incentive that will be paid to small and medium sized employers when they take on young apprentices, and reforms to the growth and skills levy to encourage more young people to start apprenticeships.