Young Person's Guarantee - implementation: progress report

Executive Summary

Following on from the recommendations within Youth Guarantee - No-One Left Behind: Initial Report^[5] and through enhancing existing interventions, substantial progress has been made. Most notably:

• An Implementation Group has been established which meets regularly to advise on issues relating to delivery;
• The Group developed a Young Person's Guarantee Activity Plan^[6] to set out the high-level activities required to support implementation;
• We have published a national Employer Recruitment Incentive (ERI) Framework^[7] and provided funding to support young people into sustained employment and employers to create jobs and apprenticeships for young people;
• A short time-bound £15m Apprenticeship Employer Grant was introduced to encourage employers to take on Modern or Graduate Apprentices, or to upskill their existing workforce;
• Enhanced support for Adopt an Apprentice and the Apprentice Transition Plan to support Modern and Graduate apprentices;
• We have been working closely with employers to develop '5 Asks' so that they can clearly demonstrate what they will do to support young people, with employers such as BAE Systems, ScotRail, Scottish Power, Morgan Stanley, Barnardo's, Prince's Trust, SCVO and others committing;
• Young Scot and partners are ensuring a co-design approach is taken with young people and Young Scot have established a Young Person's Guarantee Leadership Panel to support this;
• Advancing equality and inclusion will be central to the Young Person's Guarantee, and so we are working with partners to deliver on commitments set out in our published Equality Action Plan;^[8]
• We have provided funding to Volunteering Matters to create additional volunteering opportunities in three local authority areas;
• Funding has been provided so the college sector can engage 5000 students in shorter, industry focused opportunities in 2020/21;
• The 'DYW Futures' review is underway to further streamline the DYW programme and align it to the Young Person's Guarantee;
• Skills Development Scotland are leading on a collaborative, system-wide review of careers information, advice and guidance; and,
• Work continues to develop the Measurement and Evaluation Framework, which will underpin our understanding of how the Young Person's Guarantee is working for young people.

While it is important to recognise progress made, there remains a power of work to be done. We, along with our partners, will continue efforts towards ensuring that the ambition of the Young Person's Guarantee is delivered on. It is vital that our early success is maintained throughout the next parliamentary term. In November 2020, the Scottish Government made £60 million available to support new and enhanced opportunities and we are building on that with a further £70 million investment in 2021-22. This investment is creating more opportunities for young people in addition to our significant investment in schools, colleges, universities and apprenticeships. This funding will help to generate approximately:

• 11,000 opportunities for young people through local partnerships. We are also working with local partnerships to develop proposals for utilising the £45 million to provide additional and enhanced opportunities;
• 9,000 additional places in college, including short, industry-focussed and fast track courses aimed at supporting young people to progress into positive outcomes;
• 2,600 opportunities for vulnerable and care experienced young people from Inspiring Scotland, and from the Prince's Trust, Barnardo's and Action for Children Consortium;
• Up to 500 graduate level placements of between 6 and 12 months to support progression into sustainable, graduate level employment;
• 110 additional formal volunteering opportunities, which will provide young people with experience of the working environment, as well as the confidence and skills to move towards paid employment;
• 288 DYW School Coordinators to enhance employer-education engagement, particularly in the senior phase and with a focus on those furthest away from the labour market; and,
• 1,152 opportunities for disabled young people through expanded provision of Enable Works, to provide specialist support to disabled young people as they transition into the labour market.