16-18 year olds NEET
Being out of education, employment or training (NEET) between the ages of 16 and 18 is an enormous waste of young people’s potential and their contribution to society. What is more, being NEET is linked to a number of other poor outcomes, including low levels of attainment and teenage conception.
Reducing the proportion of young people NEET is therefore one of the Department’s key national priorities - our target is to reduce the proportion of 16-18 year olds who are NEET by 2 percentage points by 2010. Local authorities have the lead responsibility for reducing the proportion of young people NEET in their areas and we welcome the fact that so many local areas have chosen the NEET Indicator for their Local Area Agreement (LAA).
The latest figures show that 189,500 (9.4 percent) 16- to 18-year-olds were NEET at the end of 2007, a reduction from 210,000 (10.4 percent) at the end of 2006. When broken down by age, the proportion of 16- to 17-year-olds NEET fell from 8.2% to 7.2% in this period, and 18-year-olds NEET from 14.7% to 13.7%. The reduction in the proportion of 18 year olds NEET is particularly welcome given that it is the first reduction for 3 years. More detailed statistics are available in the NEET Data section.
In November 2007, the Department published the NEET Strategy, Reducing the number of young people not in education, employment or training. This set out the key steps we will take to support local authorities and delivery partners to prevent young people from becoming NEET and to support those who are NEET to re-engage in education, employment or training. You can read more about the NEET Strategy and download a copy from the NEET Strategy section.
In May 2008, we published the NEET Toolkit. Based around the same key themes as the Strategy, this sets out the role of each delivery partner, good practice tips and case studies to support delivery. To complement this, we have produced more detailed guidance on the use of flexible provision to allow young people to start programmes during the course of the academic year - this can be found at the bottom of this page. We are also gradually building up a library of best practice and you can find this in the NEET Guidance section.
We want this website to be as helpful as possible for practitioners and those who share an interest in reducing the proportion of young people NEET. If you have any feedback or would like to submit an example of best practice or suggest additional content, then please feel free to contact us.
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NEET Toolkit
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NEET flexible provision
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Reducing the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET): The strategy
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