Former M&S boss to help Government tackle youth unemployment crisis

The former M&S Chief Executive, Marc Bolland, has been appointed by the Government to help the more than one million young people currently not in education, employment or training (also referred to as NEETs) find work.

This is part of the Government's "youth guarantee" scheme to ensure every person aged 18 to 21 has access to opportunities to start their professional career.

Bolland was chosen by the Work and Pensions Secretary, Pat McFadden, to deliver the scheme.

McFadden spoke about the appointment on the Sky News Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips programme, saying that it "sends a clear signal that we are serious about tackling that challenge" and that Bolland's experience "will be really valuable".

Bolland was CEO of Marks & Spencer from 2010 to 2016, and also held the positions of Chief Executive at Morrisons and Chief Operating Officer at Heineken.

In 2012, he founded the charity Movement to Work in response to the scale of youth unemployment following the financial crisis. It connects those aged 16 to 30 with employment or training opportunities and has already helped 200,000 young people into work.

Bolland's appointment follows the release of official figures suggesting that the number of young people neither working nor learning has risen above one million for the first time since 2013.

The Office for National Statistics said the number of people aged between 16 and 24 who are not in employment, education or training (NEETs) rose to 1.01 million in the three months from January to March.

It is the highest level since the three months to December 2013, when the figures were calculated using a different methodology, and also represents an increase of 55,000 compared with the previous quarter.

McFadden has previously said the impact of youth unemployment could scar people for the rest of their lives, branding it "a quiet crisis, a ticking timebomb, which risks their future working lives".

The Government also announced plans for 300,000 extra work experience placements over the next three years - from construction to hospitality - with the Department for Work and Pensions saying the government is keen to "give every young person the best start in their career".

McFadden also commissioned an interim report, published last Thursday, which warned that the number of NEETs could reach 1.25 million within the next five years without policy action.

Review author Alan Milburn said the first rung of the career ladder is "simply out of reach" for many young people, and concluded that this is not the fault of this group but rather a "failure of a system stuck in the past".

The former Labour Cabinet minister spoke about some of his findings last week, warning that anxiety linked to social media is driving economic inactivity among young people.

He said: "Six in 10 have never had a job. Twenty years ago, that figure was closer to four in 10. Detachment is no longer temporary. For too many young people, it is becoming permanent. We are at risk of a lost generation."

McFadden added: "I commissioned this report because we cannot afford to lose a generation of young people, and I welcome Alan Milburn’s vital work, which lays bare the scale of the challenge and the root causes of youth unemployment that we now need to confront."

Meanwhile, the boss of Next plc has also warned of a "crisis in youth unemployment", citing a drop in the number of opportunities for shop workers and entry-level jobs.

Simon Wolfson, Chief Executive of the retail group, blamed higher labour costs and slow growth in the UK economy for the decline in vacancies.

He told the BBC’s Big Boss Interview: “You can really see a dramatic fall in entry-level opportunities. In our stores just two years ago we had 10 applicants for every single job vacancy in our shops – that’s high. Today, that figure is at 19.

"I think that doubling of applicants for shop jobs is indicative of just how big the crisis is in youth unemployment at the moment."