Retailers and government target 100,000 jobs for young people out of work

Britain's retail industry has struck a partnership with the government to move 100,000 young people who are not in employment, education or training into jobs before the end of this parliament, in what amounts to the sector's largest coordinated response yet to rising youth unemployment.

The commitment was set out at the Retail Jobs Summit in Parliament, attended by work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden, Young People and Work Review chair Alan Milburn and more than 30 retail chief executives. It centres on a new work experience programme, Opening Shift, built by retailers through the British Retail Consortium (BRC) alongside the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and former Marks & Spencer chief Marc Bolland.

The scale of the problem is set out in Milburn's recent interim report: close to one million young people, or one in seven, are currently classified as NEET, a figure his review warns could pass 1.25 million within five years.

"Six in ten young people who are NEET have never had a job. Unless we can increase work opportunities, Britain's NEET crisis will get worse not better," Milburn said, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), and the Department for Work and Pensions. "A lack of work experience is holding back young people and is one of the biggest barriers stopping employers taking on more people."

How Opening Shift works

Participating retailers will host 18 to 24-year-olds for placements of two to four weeks, running between 16 and 35 hours a week. Participants keep their Universal Credit for the duration, are assigned a workplace "buddy", and are guaranteed an interview at the end of the placement, with the aim of converting as many as possible into paid roles where vacancies exist. The DWP will route candidates through Jobcentres.

More than 40 retailers are involved in developing and rolling out the programme, with 11,305 placements pledged so far. Fashion and general merchandise names among the early signatories include Primark, JD Sports, New Look and Ann Summers, alongside grocers and specialists such as Tesco, Asda, Marks & Spencer, Currys, Greggs and Costa Coffee, according to reporting by the Press Association.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: "Retail is coming to the rescue for tens of thousands of young people struggling to take their first steps on the career ladder. Too many are trapped in a no experience, no job doom loop. High-quality work experience is essential to fix this problem and Opening Shift is a major contribution to delivering it."

She added that the industry's geographic spread makes it unusually well placed to act: "Retail is uniquely placed to make a difference on the NEETs crisis, given the industry's scale and reach touching every corner of the country."

Retail as the entry point

Retail and its supply chain account for almost a quarter of all youth employment in the UK, making it the country's largest private sector gateway into work for people with few qualifications or none.

Prime minister Andy Burnham said the cycle facing young jobseekers was indefensible. "Too many young people are trapped in a vicious cycle where they need experience to get a job and need a job to get experience — leaving them stuck while the world of work drifts further out of reach. That isn't right."

McFadden framed the scheme as part of a wider spending commitment. "By creating thousands of opportunities in the retail sector, we're delivering on our commitment to help more young people build brighter futures, backed by our 2.5 billion pound investment to support the next generation into employment."

Bolland, now lead non-executive director at the DWP and founder of Movement to Work, called on the rest of the sector to follow. "Today's announcement takes that further, creating thousands more opportunities for young people to build a future in one of Britain's biggest industries and I'd encourage every retailer to look at what more they can offer."

The programme sits alongside existing employability work retailers run with the DWP under the Youth Guarantee and with partners including Movement to Work, the King's Trust and IGD. The BRC and government are positioning the model as a template other industries could adopt.

This article was drafted with the assistance of AI and edited by a FashionUnited journalist.