A Personal Plea to Employers: Please Help Young People Get Their First Real Chance

As a young man working as a Careers & Talent Director, I read the government’s Young People and Work interim report with two reactions.

The first was frustration.

The second was urgency.

Frustration because, once again, young people are being discussed as if they are the problem to be fixed. Urgency because the data is now too serious for employers to treat youth employment as a side project, a corporate social responsibility initiative, or something to revisit only when budgets feel more comfortable.

Nearly one million 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK are not in education, employment or training. That is not a small warning light on the dashboard. That is a national alarm.

But behind the phrase “NEET” are young people with ambition, pressure, anxiety, talent, responsibility, potential and a dream to be something more. Some are caring for family. Some are managing health challenges. Some left education without the network or confidence to take the next step. Some have seen college places become harder to access because demand is high and spaces are limited. Some have applied for job after job and heard nothing back. Some have simply never been shown what a realistic route into work looks like.

As someone who works in this space, and as someone still close enough in age to understand how it feels to be at the start of your career, I do not believe this generation lacks drive.

From my own experience, I have seen the opposite. Young people want opportunities to work. They want to contribute, earn, learn, build confidence and prove themselves. What many lack is not ambition; it is access to a structured first step that gives them the chance to show what they can do.

That is why I am writing this as a personal plea to employers: please help us build the doorway in.

Young people need a first rung they can actually reach

We talk a lot about skills gaps. We talk about talent shortages, recruitment costs, retention issues and workforce planning.

But we need to talk more about the first rung.

For many young people, that first rung is missing.

Entry-level jobs often ask for experience. Online applications can filter people out before a human being sees them. Automated recruitment systems can reward confidence, polish and keywords. Interviews can end up testing whether a young person knows how to perform professionalism, rather than whether they have the potential to learn, grow and contribute.

For a young person who has never had a job before, this can feel impossible.

My recommendation to employers is simple: make entry-level roles genuinely entry level. Focus on attitude, potential and willingness to learn. Use clear language in job adverts. Give young applicants a fair chance to show how they think, how they communicate and how they could grow with the right support.

If we say we value potential, let us use recruitment methods that can actually identify it. If we want young people from different backgrounds, let us build routes that do not depend only on CVs, networks or polished interview technique.

Talent is not always loud. Sometimes it is quiet, nervous and unsure because nobody has opened the door before.

This is personal plea for my generation and the ones after me

I do not look at this issue from a distance.

I am a young man in the apprenticeship sector, and I know how powerful the right opportunity can be. I also know how easily potential can be missed when employers only hire what already looks familiar.

There are young people right now who could become brilliant colleagues, supervisors, managers, founders, specialists and leaders. But they may not have the language to sell themselves yet. They may not know what a career pathway looks like. They may not have someone at home who can explain apprenticeships, interviews or workplace expectations.

That is where employers can make a life-changing difference.

Not as saviours. Not as charities. But as organisations with a responsibility to build the workforce they keep saying they need.

My plea is simple: please give young people a supported first chance.

We cannot expect fully formed talent to appear without someone first investing in it.

The pathway exists. Please use it

One reason I feel so strongly about this is that employers are not being asked to do this alone.

There are practical pathways and financial incentives available to help businesses hire, train and develop young people properly.

Through HOP apprenticeships and foundation apprenticeship pathways, employers can offer young people an initial structured route into work over eight months. That matters because some young people need a bridge into employment. They need time to build confidence, workplace habits, technical skills and belief in themselves.

These foundation pathways create exactly that: a supported step between potential and employment.

Alongside this, there are grants and assistance available to employers hiring young people. Employers taking on eligible foundation apprenticeships can receive up to £2,000. From October 2026, non-levy paying employers will be able to access a £2,000 hiring grant when recruiting new apprentices aged 16 to 24, subject to the relevant eligibility rules. The government has also announced a £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant to support employers hiring eligible unemployed 18 to 24-year-olds.

To me, this changes the conversation.

If young people want opportunities, if structured pathways exist, and if financial support is available to help employers take them on, then hiring young people becomes more than a nice thing to do. It becomes an obligation.

An obligation to the future workforce. An obligation to the communities businesses operate in. An obligation to sectors that keep talking about skills shortages. An obligation to the young people who are ready to work but need someone to open the door.

Every employer will have different circumstances. Every business will have different capacity. But I would ask every employer to explore what support is available, speak to apprenticeship providers and local partners, and ask: what role can we play?

Because the support is there. The young people are there. The need is there.

Now we need employers to step forward.

Investing in young people makes business sense

Hiring young people is often framed as a moral decision. It is that, but it is also a commercial one.

If employers are struggling with skills shortages, ageing workforces, high turnover and rising recruitment costs, then investing in young people is essential workforce planning.

Young people bring energy, digital confidence, adaptability and fresh perspective. They can be shaped around your standards, culture and future skills needs. They often become loyal when an employer gives them a genuine start and supports them properly.

The question is not whether young people can add value. The question is whether employers are willing to create the conditions that allow that value to show.

That means structured onboarding. Patient management. Clear expectations. Mentoring. Real progression. Feedback that develops rather than discourages.

A young person’s first job should feel like the beginning of a career, not a test they are expected to pass alone.

Please see young people as potential, not risk

I understand that employers have concerns.

Taking on someone young can feel like a risk. They may need more time, more guidance and more support at the beginning.

But I would ask employers to see that support as an investment.

The bigger risk is a future workforce without enough trained talent. The bigger risk is sectors becoming less diverse and less innovative. The bigger risk is businesses competing endlessly for experienced staff instead of building their own pipeline. The bigger risk is young people becoming permanently disconnected from work, with all the personal and economic damage that follows.

The government report makes clear that this is not about a generation choosing not to work. It is about a system that has allowed too many young people to fall between education, employment, health support and opportunity.

Employers cannot fix all of that alone.

But employers can make a difference in the part of the system they control.

You can make job descriptions more realistic.

You can make recruitment processes more accessible.

You can train managers to support young workers well.

You can treat apprenticeships as serious career routes.

You can partner with schools, colleges, councils, providers and community organisations.

You can give one young person the chance that changes everything.

What I am asking employers to do now

If I were speaking directly to employers, my message would be simple: start somewhere.

Start with one role. One apprenticeship. One placement. One foundation pathway. One young person who may not have made it through your process before.

Then build from there.

Review your entry-level job adverts. Remove unnecessary experience requirements. Use plain English. Be clear about pay, hours, training and progression.

Look again at how you assess young candidates. Value potential as much as polish. Use practical tasks, strengths-based questions and conversations that allow young people to show how they think and learn.

Prepare managers before the young person starts. A good line manager can change the direction of someone’s life. A supportive first workplace can shape how a young person sees themselves for years.

Use the funding available. Speak to apprenticeship providers, local authorities, Jobcentre Plus, colleges and youth employment organisations. Find out what grants, incentives and support apply to your business.

Make youth employment part of your workforce strategy, not an afterthought.

This is not charity. It is leadership.

I believe the employers who act now will be the ones that benefit most in the years ahead.

They will have stronger pipelines, better retention, more diverse teams and deeper links with their communities. They will be known not just for hiring talent, but for creating it.

As a Careers & Talent Director, and as a young man who cares deeply about this generation, I do not want to look back in ten years and say we saw the warning signs but waited for someone else to respond.

I do not want young people to be told they are the future while being locked out of the present.

The next generation does not need sympathy.

It needs access.

It needs employers willing to open doors, design proper pathways and use the support available to make first jobs possible again.

So this is my plea to employers:

Please take the chance.

Please use the funding.

Please create the pathway.

Please open the door.

The first rung of the ladder has been weakened. Together, we can rebuild it.