Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s will provide around 10,000 work experience opportunities for young people in disadvantaged areas, the government announced, as part of efforts to address youth unemployment.
Beginning in October, the retailer's scheme will feature workplace visits, career workshops and hands-on placements across England, Scotland and Wales designed to help more young people enter work.
The project will focus on communities with high levels of free school meal eligibility and significant numbers of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) – which currently exceeds one million nationally.
Andy Burnham commended Sainsbury’s for "stepping up" while his government works alongside employers to "close the gap between the classroom and the workplace".
This follows plans unveiled last month by the prime minister for technical education options for 14-year-olds, placing them on an equal footing with conventional academic routes
Mr Burnham said: “The youth unemployment crisis has been ignored for too long. This government is making it a top priority and bringing back hope.
“Last month we announced a shake-up of the education system, with the launch of new prestigious technical educational routes. Now we’re bringing employers, schools and colleges together to close the gap between the classroom and the workplace.
“It’s great to see Sainsbury’s stepping up with 10,000 opportunities to help young people build confidence, gain experience and get a foot in the door.
“I encourage more businesses across the country to do the same. Access to opportunity and work experience shouldn’t depend on who you know, it should be within reach for every young person wherever they live – and that’s what I’m determined to deliver.”
The new “modern work experience programme” by Sainsbury’s will offer younger students a combination of school-based learning and workplace experience while older participants will receive support with CV writing, interview skills, job applications and career planning.
Sainsbury’s, one of the UK’s biggest employers with 140,000 staff, said a quarter of its workforce is aged under 25.
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Chief executive Simon Roberts said: “Like so many of us, I started my working life at 16 on the shop floor and know first-hand how much getting that first job really matters. Few things matter more to us at Sainsbury’s than helping young people get on that first rung on the career ladder.”
The latest data, published in May, showed the number of young people aged 16-24 neither working nor learning surpassed one million – nearly one in seven – for the first time since 2013, reaching 1.01 million in the three months from January to March.
Former Labour minister Alan Milburn, whose interim report in May warned the figure could rise to one in six by 2031, said: “For too long work experience has been treated as an afterthought. Yet six in 10 young people who are Neet have never had a job.
“Employers say lack of experience is the single biggest barrier to hiring young people – and young people say exactly the same. It’s a vicious cycle and it’s holding Britain back.
“Sainsbury’s is helping break that cycle, reaching the communities where young people face the biggest barriers. It’s exactly the kind of practical action employers can take now while we build the fuller response this problem demands.”
British Retail Consortium chief executive Helen Dickinson said opportunities in retail – a first step on the career ladder for thousands – were being scaled up.
She said: “Helping more young people be work ready and those who need help breaking out of the no-experience, no-job doom loop is critical to addressing the Neets crisis.”
Schools are being encouraged to sign up from September.
Sainsbury’s will also work with The Careers & Enterprise Company and other industry partners to test approaches which could later be expanded to more stores and communities.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said: “Work experience is welcome but what young people tell me they really want is jobs.
“No amount of training schemes can cover up the fact that Labour have destroyed job opportunities for young people with their jobs tax and extra red tape.
“That’s put the brakes on businesses hiring young people – giving us the highest youth unemployment in over a decade.”
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