The government’s top social mobility adviser has told the BBC that young people should be given a legal guarantee of a job or training, a proposal that would place a binding obligation on the state to provide a route into work for every young person. The announcement, made in an interview, is part of a wider push to reform the way the United Kingdom hands out opportunities to its youngest citizens.
The adviser said the legal guarantee would be a response to a system that too often leaves young people without a route into work, and that the idea has begun to gather support in Whitehall. The proposal is a quiet but significant one, because it would turn a policy aspiration into a statutory obligation, and would shift the burden of job creation onto the state in a way that has rarely been attempted in recent decades.
The idea has been framed as a way of addressing the gap between education and employment, and of giving young people a clear path into work. The adviser did not say what the guarantee would look like in practice, or how it would be funded, but the principle is that no young person should leave the education system without a route into work. It is a statement of intent from someone who has spent their career on social mobility.
Why it matters
The proposal matters because it touches on the most important issue in British social policy: whether the state has a responsibility to ensure that young people can find work. The United Kingdom has a well-documented record of youth unemployment, and the question of whether that is a matter of individual choice or a failure of the system is one that the government has frequently sidestepped.
A legal guarantee would be a transformation of the relationship between the state and the young. It would place a duty on the government to provide a route into work, and would create a mechanism for holding the state to account if that duty is not met. The policy would be a major advance in social mobility, and would be watched closely by young people and their families.
The UK’s education and training system is increasingly under scrutiny, with the question of whether schools and colleges are preparing young people for the labour market being asked in every region. The proposal is part of a wider conversation about how to make the system fit for purpose, and the idea of a legal guarantee is a fresh one that deserves serious consideration.
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What happens next
The proposal will now be parsed by policymakers, trade unions and the opposition. The details of the guarantee, and the mechanism for delivering it, will be the next stage, and the government will be pressured to say how it would be funded.
Any move to legislate on the matter would be attacked from the left and the right, with the government under pressure to explain how the guarantee would be delivered without adding to the public finances. The idea will be refined, and the details will be played out in the coming months.
The BBC’s report of the interview sets the terms of the debate. The proposal is a signal that the social-mobility agenda is moving from the margins to the centre of government thinking, and the details of the plan will be reported as they emerge.
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