Wigan's bid to drive down numbers of 'doing nothing' young people

It’s part of the town’s “employment and skills strategy” with town hall bosses aiming to help residents, partners, employers and training providers bridge skills gaps and identify where future job opportunities are likely to be.

A report to Wigan place and environment scrutiny committee said that ‘labour market intelligence’ is already boosting employment in some key areas, like health and social care, construction, manufacturing with digital and the green economy.

Some £440,000 of cash has been given to Wigan from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund via the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to tackle the issue.

It started in October 2023 and will run until March 2025, and is expected to build on the prior success of the European Social Fund NEET programme Connect to your Future which ended in September 2023.

Coun Jeanette Prescott told the committee apprenticeships and schemes to get young people into employment might are preventing them from “turning to crime or drug use”.

“We have to do thing to prevent young people from taking drugs and feeling worthless,” she said.

One measure being undertaken is to use the funds to give employers incentives of between £2,000 and £5,000 to top up pay for apprentices who are often on lower wages than supermarket workers.

The report from assistant director of skills and enterprise Claire Burnham said: “We are aware that post-Covid we have seen a significant increase in the number of young people who are NEET but not ready or available to join the workforce due to additional barriers such as anxiety and mental health challenges.

“The chances of being NEET aligns with other forms of deprivation and occurs disproportionately among those already experiencing other barriers,” the report said.

It goes on to say that the three groups most likely to be NEET are young people with experience of the care system, the youth justice system and those with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).

The report concluded: “The council, alongside partners, has made significant improvements over the last year in reducing the level of NEETs and ‘unknown’ in the borough.

“There are still improvements to be made, however, particularly around raising participation in learning for 16 to 18-year-olds and building improvements in support available to our most vulnerable young people up to the age of 25.”