Youth Unemployment

Amanda Martin Excerpts

Wednesday 28th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Olney]

My hon. Friend is right. Young people face so many barriers to accessing both education and employment, and that is very much a legacy of the last Conservative Government and their mismanagement.

Young people are increasingly concerned about the fact that the links between education and employment have become weaker and weaker.

[Amanda Martin (Portsmouth North) (Lab)]

Does the hon. Member agree that, under the Conservatives, career advice in schools was absolutely decimated and hollowed out, pushing young people to the margins? On top of that, does she agree that young people are unable to do the gold-standard apprenticeships that my dad and my brother did, as those apprenticeships were neglected by the Conservatives, in favour of more academic routes?

[Sarah Olney]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right about apprenticeships, and I will say more about them in due course.

In years past, those who went to university and attained a good degree could reasonably expect an entry-level job in the field in which they wanted to work, but now the experience for so many young people is that they enter a job market that is not open to hiring inexperienced people; employers are less willing or able to take a risk on training individuals just out of university. When I spoke to business students from Roehampton University earlier this month, they explained to me their fears that they will be unable to work in the field of their choosing. One student told me that they had even seen an advertisement for a volunteering position that required three years of experience. The job market is so crowded and competitive that the reality for more and more graduates is that they must return to living with their parents after university, with no serious prospect of gaining even an entry-level job.