Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training in the East Midlands.

Almost 90% young people in England, and the East Midlands, are now in education, employment or training, but there is more to do.

The proportion of young people not in education, employment or training in the East Midlands has fallen from 12.4% in Q4 of 2010 to 11.1% in Q4 in 2017.

In the East Midlands, the government is providing support to improve skills through Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). For example, over £30 million of Local Growth Funding has been provided through the Derby and Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire LEP, to create a new Nottingham College campus and to extend the Vision West Nottinghamshire College in Mansfield. These projects should create places for 2,000 additional learners.

Through the work of The Careers & Enterprise Company’s Enterprise Adviser Network, we are linking young people in schools and colleges with employers so that they are more aware of the possibilities available to them. All schools in England will be offered an Enterprise Adviser (a senior business volunteer) by 2020.

Across the East Midlands we are also funding various careers and enterprise activities. In the Derby ‘Opportunity Area’, The Careers & Enterprise Company will make sure that those between 11 and 18 years old benefit from four encounters with the world of work. Some of the organisations that are being funded in Derby include the Engineering Development Trust, Future First and Young Enterprise.