The UK government is expanding youth work-experience and training schemes following a stark warning from former minister Alan Milburn that Britain spends significantly more on keeping young people on benefits than on helping them into work.
Government Announces 300,000 Extra Work Experience Placements
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden will unveil plans for 300,000 additional work experience placements over the next three years, aiming to address what he describes as a “quiet crisis” in youth employment. Nearly 1 million 16- to 24-year-olds are currently not in education, employment, or training (Neet), with almost 60% having never held a job.
“It’s a quiet crisis, a ticking timebomb, which risks their future working lives,” McFadden said. “It’s hardest for young people without family connections. No job because they have no experience and no experience because they don’t have a job.”
McFadden noted that many traditional entry-level jobs have disappeared as retail employment declines and the pandemic disrupted workplace opportunities for younger people. “Talent is spread evenly across the country, but opportunity is not,” he added.
Sector-Based Work Academy Programmes (Swaps) to Play Key Role
The government hopes an expansion of sector-based work academy programmes (Swaps) can help reverse the trend. Around half of the new placements will come through Swaps, which are six-week training schemes with guaranteed job interviews at the end.
New analysis from the Department for Work and Pensions suggests that young people who take part in Swaps are 13% more likely to be in work two years later compared to those who did not participate. Additionally, four in ten participants move into sustained employment within six months.
In 2025-26, nearly 100,000 Swaps took place, with 25,000 young people aged 16-24 starting one this year—a record number. Ministers are targeting 115,000 placements next year.
Milburn: Britain Has Neglected a Generation
McFadden’s remarks and the scheme expansion come as Alan Milburn warned that the country has become “neglectful” of a generation struggling to access work and training opportunities. “This is really shameful,” Milburn told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme. “We as a society, and we in politics, have been neglectful of what is frankly a scandal.”
In a stark assessment of Britain’s welfare system, Milburn highlighted the disparity in spending: “For every £25 that we spend keeping young people on benefits, we spend only £1 helping them get into work through employment support.”
Construction accounted for nearly 17,000 Swap starts, making it the largest sector, with employers including Manchester Airport Group, JD, and Gatwick Airport backing the expanded placements.
Generational Crisis and Health Concerns
Milburn said Britain faces a generational crisis. “The old contract in society was that each generation would do better than the last. So this is the first generation where that contract is being broken,” he said.
He also highlighted the sharp increase in young people reporting work-limiting health conditions, particularly mental health and neurodiversity issues. “It’s a real thing, it’s not a fake thing,” he said. “This is a generation living with more distress, more anxiety.”
However, he questioned why a diagnosis or condition should automatically lead young people onto benefits rather than into work. “The real question is, just because you’ve got a diagnosis or a condition, why should that lead you to being transported into a world of benefits rather than into the world of work?”
Potential Bursary for Families
Meanwhile, the Times reported that families on benefits could receive hundreds of pounds per month via a bursary to prevent them from discouraging their 16- and 17-year-old children from taking apprenticeships. McFadden is understood to be considering a targeted system to address cases where parents lose child benefit and universal credit elements when their children start apprenticeships, leaving them significantly worse off.
