Youth Guarantee promises paid placements for unemployed young people
Written by Elizabeth Earl on 2nd October 2025
A pioneering scheme to help young people find guaranteed work – already being piloted in the North East – is to be rolled out nationwide.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves made the announcement at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool this week, warning that any young unemployed person refusing to take part in the Youth Guarantee scheme will lose benefits.
The scheme will offer paid work, subsidised by the government, to all eligible young people who have been on universal credit for 18 months.
The aim is to get younger unemployed people into the world of work before their unemployment becomes lifelong.
In the UK, almost 13% of people aged 16 to 24 in the UK are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), according to the Office for National Statistics.
“We won’t leave a generation of young people to languish without prospects,” Reeves said in her Labour conference speech.
The government has not yet revealed who will pay the wages of those on the scheme, or specified the age range for eligibility.
But the concept is not new here in the North East.
Under the Youth Guarantee Trailblazer programme, which is already running in Tees Valley, wages are subsidised through a £5million government fund, meaning there is no cost to businesses, and the age range is 18-21.
Conservative Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said he was confident it would bring results.
“The five million pounds will largely go towards paying for placements for young people who are not in education, skills or employment, who were much further away from the jobs market, that have other challenges to be able to get into work,” he said.
“Give them confidence and hopefully get them the skills and that means that we are tackling the issue of generational poverty.”
Employment prospects for young people in the North East are among the worst in the country, according to the Youth Opportunity Index 2025. Of the 12 national combined authorities, the findings ranked the North East last for its NEET rate, and second-last for its employment rate.
Data from the Youth Opportunity Index 2025 produced by Learning and Work Institute, an independent policy and research organisation.
