Two million apprenticeships could transform Britain’s left-behind towns – if they’re done right

Young people in Britain today are facing a crisis of opportunity. Almost one million are now NEET (not in education, employment or training), and unlike most of our international peers, the UK’s NEET rate has risen in recent years. 

For young people from low-income backgrounds the situation is even less hopeful. Today, they will find themselves twice as likely to be locked out of work or learning than their more affluent peers.

This uncomfortable reality is felt most sharply in Britain’s left-behind towns, where the legacy of deindustrialisation is still felt, growth has stalled and years of levelling-up rhetoric has delivered little for local communities. 

Young people in these areas often face a difficult choice: stay in their hometown but risk never finding high-paid work; or move away to find a career in a “well-to-do” city. The resulting exodus of young people keeps those struggling towns and neighbourhoods in a cycle of social and economic decline. As a country, we cannot afford to let this continue. 

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At the cross-party think tank Demos, we have been learning from businesses, organisations and communities across the country that are tackling this problem head-on. And what we found reveals a hopeful route forward.

SMEs can play a key role in unlocking sorely-needed jobs

Key to providing local highly-paid jobs for young people is the success of Britain’s small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). SMEs account for six in 10 employees in the UK, more than a third of new apprenticeships, and 19 out of 20 ‘scale-ups’ (high-growth firms). 

However, local SMEs often struggle to support young people onto the career ladder in the same ways larger organisations do, like by opening up entry-level positions or working with schools to provide careers advice. They so often lack either the finance, time or capacity. But innovative ways of working together are helping small businesses overcome those barriers.

Take CATCH in Grimsby; a local apprenticeship training provider that uses a membership model, bringing local employers together to shape high-quality apprenticeship programmes around real local skills shortages. By enabling local firms to pool their resources, insights, and outreach, CATCH helps businesses hire the workers they need while opening doors for young people into well-paid professions on their doorstep. 

Less than a hundred miles away, in Bradford, SkillsHouse – part of the council’s employment and skills service – is working with schools, colleges and local employers to support students from early years through to post-16 employment. Through facilitating partnerships between local schools and employers, SkillsHouse helps not just young students to understand the opportunities in their local economy, but also enables educators to feed the necessary career skills into their curriculum and businesses to build a local talent pipeline. 

These outstanding initiatives show that it is possible to transform prospects for young people, whilst allowing them to stay in their hometowns, where their families and communities are. 

What’s the crucial ingredient in these examples? They bring local businesses, educators, and other local partners together, so everyone benefits from the combined knowledge and capacity, reducing the burden on individual SMEs. 

By sharing data on local skills and employment, advocating around shared local needs and partnering on local skills outreach programmes, they set up their own economies of coordination, and unlock the benefits larger organisations might see from economies of scale. 

Stronger local networks can lift the burden from strained local businesses 

These pockets of promise show that more can be done to improve apprenticeship routes and other access to work for young people in disadvantaged areas. But they only happen when employers, colleges, councils and community organisations are given the tools to work together. 

The responsibility is now on the government to build these links. That means the government nurturing strong, long-term partnerships between regional institutions and local firms and educators. It means local authorities building ‘community hubs’, connecting businesses with community organisations to align on local priorities and embed them into council services. And it means considering the launch of local online resources like ‘social value portals’, so companies can understand and measure their impact on local jobs and opportunities.

Delivered at national scale, this approach could be transformative. According to analysis by Demos, it could deliver up to two million new apprenticeships across the country and unlock up to £28bn each year in economic growth. 

But the change means far more than just good statistics. It would offer a more hopeful future for a generation of young people, and breathe new life back into left-behind towns and neighbourhoods across Britain. That’s exactly what the country needs.

Nicola Stokes is a researcher at the cross party think tank Demos.

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