Tessa Jowell: 'London youngsters need 'skills guarantee' scheme to help them find jobs'

 
Holes in workforce: Dame Tessa Jowell (Picture: Nigel Howard)
Josh Pettitt15 May 2014

Former Labour cabinet minister Dame Tessa Jowell has called for a “skills guarantee” scheme to heal the “scar” of unemployment affecting a generation of young Londoners.

The ex-culture secretary, who is thought to be planning a bid to become Labour’s London mayoral candidate in 2016, said a quarter of young Londoners were out of work, with outer London boroughs such as Barking and Dagenham suffering the most.

She also claimed that 17 per cent of businesses in the capital had reported holes in their workforce because of a shortage of skilled candidates.

Speaking at the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion’s Youth Employment Convention yesterday, Ms Jowell called on businesses, schools and policy makers to help introduce new measures to assist school leavers in finding jobs.

The MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, who paid tribute to the Evening Standard’s Ladder for London campaign which has seen firms pledge to open up over 1,400 new apprenticeships, said: “We need a plan to prevent young Londoners, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, from becoming unemployed in the first place.

“This is where there’s a real opportunity for a skills guarantee that will ensure no young person leaves education without the necessary skills, not only to secure work but to progress.”

She proposed intensive support for young children falling behind in literacy and numeracy, to develop youngster’s interview and communication skills and to instil a drive to succeed.

Rhian Johns, director of policy and campaigns at Impetus — The Private Equity Foundation which works with charities to tackle social problems affecting young people, said the scheme could be “ground-breaking”.

But she warned that responsibility for youth unemployment at a government level is “fragmented” and that a new temporary cabinet minister for “School to Work Transitions” is needed.

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