Alan Milburn

So what is happening in schools?

Our schools, every employer will say to me,

Two things.

They'll always complain about the government, fair enough.

And then they'll always say, young people aren't work ready.

And what do they mean by that?

They mean two things.

One, young people are not being acquainted earlier enough with the labour market, the disappearance of the Saturday job and all of that.

But also, they're saying schools aren't setting them up.

with the life skills, not the academic skills that are required to succeed in the workplace.

So that's a real question that we have to look at.

Is the curriculum right?

Is the way that schools are regulated, recognised, rewarded?

Is that setting up young people to be able to succeed in what is a highly competitive and fast-changing labour market?

So we're looking at that, again, as one of the drivers, if you like, that sits behind this.

Yeah, but I think we're in a perfect storm situation now because you've got this big change.

You know, when it was just youth unemployment...

Youth unemployment is very strongly correlated with the economic cycle.

So basically, if there was a downturn or a recession or whatever, or economic growth was low, then employers just turned off the recruitment tap.

And the first people to suffer, obviously, were young people coming into the workplace.