{"id":7042,"date":"2026-06-30T19:28:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/?p=7042"},"modified":"2026-06-30T19:28:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:28:37","slug":"tackling-the-neet-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/2026\/06\/30\/tackling-the-neet-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Tackling the NEET Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

We hear a lot about NEET\u2019s (those not in Education, Employment or Training); they are a major source of concern and form the focus of the recent Milburn Review<\/a>. His recent, if interim report, has dug down into the characteristics of those who become NEET. They are certainly not a homogeneous group, but there are some key pointers early on in their school life that highlight those at most risk of leaving school disengaged and without substantive qualifications. Whether a new Government will change policies, for instance around FE, to attempt to staunch the growth in the NEET population, remains to be seen. It is an area Andy Burnham has previously shown he cares greatly about. What Milburn says in his final report will no doubt influence this significantly too, but Burnham has already said he takes the (interim) Review very seriously.<\/p>\n

Those for whom school has not \u2018worked\u2019, who leave without qualifications, may have been let down by many different parts of the system, but it by no means necessarily implies they have no inherent skills or potential yet to be uncovered. Reading Francis Spufford\u2019s 2004 book, Backroom Boys: The secret return of the British boffin<\/a><\/em>, is a salutary reminder that leaving school with no fixed destination in mind may just mean the loss of untapped talent.<\/p>\n

One chapter in the book is devoted to the story behind sequencing the genome. As this work under John Sulston at Wellcome\u2019s Hinxton Hall campus expanded rapidly in 1998, in the face of the private enterprise of Craig Ventner entering the sphere as a \u2018competitor\u2019, there was a great and sudden need for more technical pairs of hands. Sulston took a radical approach:<\/p>\n

\u2018We decided we would hire outside the box. We decided we would not hire in the conventional sense.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Spufford goes on to describe what that meant in practice.<\/p>\n

\u2018They advertised in the Cambridge Evening News, not in Nature. They hired lots of people with doctorates and lots of people with biology degrees, but lots more people who had just left school with minimal GCSEs or who were returning to the workforce after twenty years of child-rearing.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They were looking for applicants who were careful, whether or not they had paper qualifications. As a consequence of this radical approach<\/p>\n

\u2018In no time at all, we had people asking if they could take day release or do evening classes\u2019…\u2019Maybe they\u2019d dropped out of school, and now they realised they did like science, and they really did want to be part of the larger picture, because now they were doing something practical.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is hard to know how many students are indeed put off science today because of (at least at secondary school) the heavy emphasis on textbook learning, with \u2018practical\u2019 work limited to teacher demonstrations or YouTube videos. The 2023 report on the Science Education Tracker<\/a> showed just how significantly this is having an impact on teenagers\u2019 interest in science. The report stated:<\/p>\n

\u2018Practical work was considered the most motivating aspect of science lessons at school, especially for students in years 7\u20139…However, access to hands\u2013on or teacher\u2013demonstrated practical work2 becomes less common as students progress through school. In year 7, 65% reported doing this at least once a fortnight, but this percentage fell steadily by school year, such that only 39% reported similar frequency of interactive practicals in year 11.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It has to be hoped the revision of the school curriculum consequent on last autumn\u2019s Francis Report (Curriculum and Assessment Review<\/a>) facilitates the much greater component of practical work at key stages 3 and 4 that it recommends.<\/p>\n

As Burnham said in this week\u2019s key Manchester speech<\/a>, the education system needs to work for those for whom university is not the right route, just as much as for those for whom it is. Over the issue of the unsuccessful bid to introduce an MBacc (Manchester Baccalaureate) with an element of technical training included, he has expressed his frustration with the Department for Education, for whom a local qualification was not acceptable. In the same vein, this week\u2019s speech stressed how he and his team in Manchester had worked with local employers to ensure every local T Level student got the requisite 45 day placement. In order to facilitate more technical education via the T Level route, this will need to be replicated across the country. No mean feat when placements are one of the major hurdles as regards increasing T Level numbers (see my blogpost <\/a>on this from a couple of years ago). Currently fewer than 30,000 students are studying for T Levels across the country.<\/p>\n

But T Level students have already committed to staying on at school or college. They aren\u2019t the NEETs, of whom there are too many. Would they be attracted by being able to do something with their hands that didn\u2019t require paper qualifications in the early years of secondary school? Can the system be changed to facilitate that? As Spufford says of Sulston\u2019s Hinxton Hall experiment:<\/p>\n

\u2018It was quite possible to answer an advert in the Cambridge Evening News, arrive at the Sanger to push a trolley and to emerge a few years later with a biology degree.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As the Department for Education ramps up its R+D efforts, tries out some Test and Learn pilots, maybe here is a model that could be facilitated around the country, to take those whom school has failed to provide the nucleus of a new generation of technicians we so badly need.<\/p>\n

The technical workforce we have in this country is ageing, numerically insufficient and in some cases lacking the skills needed in the modern workplace. This is not just about those who look after large, sophisticated bits of kit \u2013 for which a PhD may be required \u2013 but those who are involved at a much more modest level, perhaps doing fairly repetitive work, such as was required on the genome project at Hinxton. Such work can still bring its own reward: knowing you are part of a team or contributing to your community and wider society. For instance, to become a phlebotomist in the NHS, a 1-day course is advertised requiring no formal qualifications, although some course providers ask for 2 GCSEs. Having my blood tested annually for various potential problems as a senior citizen, I know what a vital role that is. A recent report<\/a> produced in association with the Gatsby Foundation (David Sainsbury has a keen interest in technical skills) highlighted the need to (amongst other things) raise awareness of technician careers early and widely; close gender gaps through outreach and support; and simplify qualification routes and strengthen T-Level and Higher Technical Qualification (HTQ) uptake.<\/p>\n

Bringing down the number of NEETs is something the new Government will need to tackle, with all the advice from the Milburn review and the experience of Manchester that Burnham seems set to bring. If more of them can be facilitated to enter the technical workforce, via T Levels or straight in after an unhappy period at school, it will benefit the individuals, the science base and the economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We hear a lot about NEET\u2019s (those not in Education, Employment or Training); they are a major source of concern and form the focus of the recent Milburn Review. His recent, if interim report, has dug down into the characteristics … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,9],"tags":[1766,1762,791,1489],"class_list":["post-7042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-careers","category-education","tag-andy-burnham","tag-milburn-review","tag-practical-work","tag-t-levels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7042"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7045,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7042\/revisions\/7045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}