Participation of 16- to 18-year olds in education: Chair's statement
3 September 2014
A statement from The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts:
Participation in education and training for 16- to 18-year-olds is vital for ensuring young people get the best start in life as well as for our economy and for society as a whole.
The Department for Education has introduced a raft of reforms and it needs to do more to understand the impact of all these changes to make sure young people are getting the high quality advice and relevant skills they need to get on the job ladder and achieve their potential.
The number of young people not in education, employment or training has fallen to 7.6% but a major reason for this is that the education participation age has gone up, with 16-year-olds now told that they have to remain in education or training.
The Department must focus hard on the 150,000 young people who are still not getting this good start in life.
Careers advice and guidance is still inadequate for many students and few 16- to 18-year-olds used the National Careers Service telephone line.
These young people have not been helped by the Department’s failure to manage its providers- with only 200 out of 459 eligible training providers actually delivering the traineeships they promised.
The impact on the public purse is also significant- with each year’s group of young people not in education, employment or training estimated to cost the taxpayer up to £32.5 billion over their lifetime.
I look forward to discussing this further with departmental officials when they appear before us.