NATWEST GROUP – WRITTEN EVIDENCE (YUN0034)

Youth Unemployment Committee inquiry

About NatWest Group

At NatWest Group we champion potential, breaking down barriers and building financial confidence, so the 19 million people, families, and businesses we serve in communities throughout the UK and Ireland can rebuild and thrive. If our customers succeed, so will we.

NatWest Group has a leading retail business and is the largest business and commercial bank in the UK. We offer market-leading digital capabilities combined with expert human support to personal customers, and we are the biggest supporter of the business sector – banking around 1 in 4 businesses across the UK and Ireland, from start-ups to multi-nationals.

As an employer we’re committed to supporting our colleagues in building the skills they need to develop, both now and in the future. LinkedIn recently ranked us third in their top 25 UK workplaces that offer employees the best chance to build and sustain a long-term career.

As part of our work in this area we partner with several organisations including Career Ready [1] and We Are Futures [2] and as part of our submission we have included comments from both organisations. More detail of our work with partners and our programmes can be found in the appendix.

Key points

As a large employer, we want to support our communities to be more economically active, which in turn helps the wider community and businesses to thrive.
We are enthusiastic supporters and providers of apprenticeships but believe there are significant flaws with the current system, both in terms of cultivating demand and maintaining supply.
Rather than focusing on sectors, the focus should be on building core skills. Jobs are changing rapidly, so whilst highlighting industry needs is important, cultivating adaptable skills that span different sectors, so that people can retrain if/when required should be prioritised.
Skills training is not enough, and more is needed to ensure young people are ready for the world of work and wider. There is a need for a greater focus on critical skills and helping young people to identify with them, know how to build them and to connect with their stage in education/early career.
More up to date knowledge on the labour market for schools and pupils is required.
Careers education provides a variable experience across the country and from school to school and there’s often a lack of diverse and relatable role models for young people.
Work experience is important but not the only activity, as it’s often short and comes later in academic years. We recommend working with partners to support work experience programmes rather than offering variable ad hoc programmes.
Interventions need to be focussed on levelling up left behind areas and less advantaged young people / those with additional needs. Many pupils, especially those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, will be disadvantaged and may not know how to access work experience or not have the same connections as say their privately educated peers.

Response to questions

What are the main challenges facing employers in the labour market today? What barriers do they face in recruiting young workers and setting up apprenticeships and traineeships?

At NatWest, we started our programmes in 2015 and have recruited over 1700 Apprentices over the past 5 years. As of 2020, over 800 apprentices had completed their programme and moved into permanent roles and we plan to recruit over 500 new apprentices across all our programmes in 2021.
We also offer apprenticeship programmes to our existing employees, through our Professional Career Development Programme to develop their skills and knowledge and have over 500 employees on this programme.
As part of this expansion in our apprentice numbers, we’ve developed and delivered a social mobility NatWest ventures programme in 2019 which instigated the wider social mobility apprenticeship programme where we plan to recruit 250 new apprentices from disadvantaged backgrounds over the next 3 years, plus another 150 social mobility apprentices into our contact centres across the UK through 2021.
We offer 9 different programmes across different business areas and locations in the UK. Programmes range from Technology, Data, Customer Service, accountancy, Digital and Relationship Management, at all levels up to degree. Programmes last between 18 months and 4 years.

However, we note the following:

We perceive that apprenticeships, amongst teachers, parents, young workers, schools, are still seen as less attractive than going on to further education. It is sometimes seen as an option for people that cannot get into or afford to go to University. Further communication with and education for key influencers is required to ensure that apprenticeships are seen as a viable, attractive, and positive option – enabling young people to make a fully informed decision.
The apprenticeship proposition is significantly different across the devolved nations, causing significant challenges for larger employers who work across the UK. The proposition varies in relation to programmes available, content and structure of the programmes and funding, as well as training provider provision.
The administration and regulation surrounding apprenticeships is significantly more complex than other work-based training programmes and less able to be adapted to meet constantly evolving employer needs. It can take two years to implement even minor changes to an apprenticeship programme.
The assessment process involves the collation of a work-based portfolio and academic essays and reflections. The time taken to document the learning undertaken by the apprentice can take significantly longer than learning the skill initially, creating a further drain on productivity and adding limited additional value to the apprentice or the employer.

Is funding for education, training, and skills enough to meet the needs of young people and of the labour market? How can we ensure it continues to reach those who need it most?

We believe that skills training is not enough, and more is needed to ensure young people are ready for the world of work and wider. Consideration and attention should be given to the ability to manage change, resilience, and emotional intelligence - all critical to how young people will either thrive or fall through the jobs market.

Education needs to be able to adapt quicker to the external environment which is now changing much more rapidly.
We echo the call from our partner, Career Ready, who have highlighted the need to see funding in education, training, and skills as an investment, not a cost.

We welcome the Scottish Government’s response via The Young Person’s Guarantee and view the ambition as a positive step forward in this direction. Their recommendations include:

Stimulating the demand-side of the labour market.
Being truly inclusive so no one is left behind, including those who were already further from the labour market prior to the impact of Covid-19.
Keeping it simple for both young people and employers, this response needs to be employer led.
Aligning with the future economy of Scotland particularly across economic policy, education at all levels and employer requirements.
Ensuring good quality and fair work for all.
Supporting the ambition of Scotland to become a net zero economy.
Simplifying the current employability landscape including governance and measurement.
Significantly improving collaboration across key stakeholders.
Ensuring the right level of education for students that is better aligned to the needs of Scotland’s economy and covers all Colleges and Universities and actively embraces blended learning.
Engaging with the UK government and their programmes, with an aim to providing a seamless set of interventions that complement each other and where possible are free from political interference.

Does the national curriculum equip young people with the right knowledge and skills to find secure jobs and careers? What changes may be needed to ensure this is the case in future?

As detailed in our response to question 4, NatWest Group believe there is a need for a greater focus on critical skills and helping young people to identify with them, know how to build them and to connect with their stage in education/early career. Our view that earlier discussion is needed to help pupils make better informed decisions around subject choices is one of the reasons our CareerSense programme aims to start at age 13.

Moreover, more up to date knowledge on the labour market for school and pupils is required – it is changing rapidly, and pupils can often have an outdated view of industry and/or misconceptions around qualifications/grades needed. This means that pupils can discount themselves early in their academic life due to lack of knowledge or tools to support them.

Evidence from Career Ready:

The English national curriculum is falling short in preparing young people for the world of work and aiding with effective career choices.
Young people and employers both describe careers education as biased towards academic routes. Teachers lack confidence and experience in promoting apprenticeships, where career provision is particularly patchy…36% of employers felt that schools and colleges were the main barrier preventing school leavers from going onto an apprenticeship.” Source: The Edge Foundation
Positive, practical steps which can be taken include embedding authentic, employer-led careers information within existing curriculum and pastoral activities, demonstrating the link between academic subjects and careers; both in pathways and skillsets.
In Scotland, Curriculum for Excellence, a 3-18 year curriculum, and through policies such as Developing the Young Workforce (DYW), have worked at ensuring there is more employer presence ‘in the classroom’ and the very recent investment in a DYW coordinator in each school should allow even more to be possible by supporting fully timetabled teachers with provision. There are foundation and pathway apprenticeships for young people still in school, with work to be done to extend the sector reach and accessibility and perceived value. Further employer engagement is needed to enhance outcomes for young people, businesses, and society.

Comments from We Are Futures:

In England, the introduction of the Gatsby Benchmarks has ensured that careers education has an increasing profile within secondary schools, although uptake and implementation of the benchmarks is patchy across the country. Recent research has shown that the greater the number of benchmarks met by a school, the higher the number of GCSEs attained by school leavers [3] suggesting that meeting the benchmarks has the power to increase the employability of young people by increasing their academic achievement.
However, unlike Scotland and Wales, employability skills development is not explicit within the curriculum, and careers and employability are not specific areas of the statutory national curriculum. Therefore, there is a danger that without leaders who champion the development of employability skills as part of the broader curriculum, the teaching of employability skills and careers education can be side-lined amongst competing demands for curriculum time.
Teachers’ own understanding of the skills and knowledge needed to enter a rapidly changing labour market can often be limited, and although Careers Leaders and those supporting delivery are being supported by Careers Hubs and Enterprise Coordinators to increase their knowledge of local Labour Market Information, it can be difficult to disseminate this knowledge amongst teachers within schools. Again, where there is leadership buy in, the connection between the curriculum and the skills and knowledge needed to pursue a job and career is more effective.
The Career Development Institute has recently published a new Careers Development framework [4] to support the delivery of careers education within schools which will help Careers Leaders ensure that young people are equipped with the right knowledge and skills. However, this framework is not part of the national curriculum suggesting it will only be taken up by schools with engaged Careers leaders and teams.
Changes proposed by We Are Futures:

- Leadership team support to give priority to careers and employability and build into the ethos of the school.

- Re-development of the national curriculum to focus on how it supports young people to prepare for and transition into the workplace.

- Inclusion of careers education into the statutory programme of study, not as a standalone subject but also woven into subject areas.

- Focus on skills development at the heart of curriculum design.

Is careers education preparing young people with the knowledge to explore the range of opportunities available? What role does work experience play in this regard?

At NatWest Group we engage with social mobility partners such as Career Ready, The Sutton Trust and Social Mobility Foundation to provide access to real world experiences that are part of a wider development programme run by the partners. This approach seems to work well so that pupils have multiple interventions and one route in.

However, we note the following:

We believe careers education provides a variable experience across the country and from school to school.
There’s often a lack of diverse and relatable role models for young people – “you can’t be what you can’t see”.
Work experience is important but not the only activity, as it’s often short and comes later in academic years. We’d recommend working with partners to support work experience programmes rather than offering variable ad hoc programmes.

Many pupils, especially those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, will be disadvantaged and may not know how to access work experience, or not have the same connections as say their privately educated peers.

Comments from We Are Futures:

In England, all 16-19 study programmes should include an element of work experience, however the duty to offer this at Key Stage 4 was removed in 2012. The Gatsby Benchmarks require that young people have experiences of the workplace throughout their school experience, and this contributes to their understanding of the opportunities available.
Schools often are adept at helping young people explore careers opportunities, but the development of career management skills are less frequently explored; these skills will be of increasing importance in a post-COVID economy.
The complexities of organising work experience opportunities within a workplace, and the reduction of school budgets to pay for brokers to carry out risk assessments means that most young people explore the opportunities available using a more theoretical approach. A plethora of online sources, platforms and tools provide information, but the opportunity to experience and explore the variety of roles available within a workplace are more difficult to achieve.
Recent virtual work experience opportunities on offer throughout the pandemic [5] have resulted in businesses being able to provide a greater reach than traditional work experiences which were limited in capacity and location.
Information about apprenticeships is being more widely shared across schools but there is still a lack of awareness about T-levels. Meeting young apprentices or employees who have recently pursued an apprenticeship pathway into a role does make a difference in helping young people understand the value of these pathways. Young people can find the process of making an application to an apprenticeship daunting, especially the timescales compared to the ‘safer’ route of an application to a course, following traditional academic timings.

What more needs to be done to ensure parity of esteem between vocational and academic study in the jobs market and society? How can funding play a role in this?

In schools and colleges, it is essential that effective and engaging conversation takes place through careers advisers/teachers and parents about the benefits of apprenticeships.

Existing apprentices should be used to talk about their experiences.
There should be a programme to educate the key influencers about all the options available without a bias towards university – allowing young people to make an informed decision.
Apprenticeship funding bands/levels should support the full cost of the learning/programme. We have observed a drive to reduce funding levels and remove some professional qualifications which will make the apprenticeship programmes less attractive.

Apprenticeship Levy funding must include the cost of professional qualifications to ensure that professional accreditation is not limited to those that choose University study.

What is the role of business and universities in creating a thriving jobs market for young people? How should they be involved in developing skills and training programmes at further and higher education level?

Career Ready observe that “Businesses are the single biggest driver in creating a thriving jobs market for young people and giving them the skills to compete in the labour market in a way which also adds economic value to employers. Employers have appetite to support young people in this regard, however, more needs to be done by policy makers to make it easier for them to do so”.

As a large employer, we want to support our communities to be more economically active which in turn helps the wider community and businesses to thrive. We’re a key industry recruiter for early career hires and through our customer base or supply chain we have a strong network that provides and supports jobs and career development.

CareerSense aims to tackle some of the skills development for those aged 13-24, working with key partners in education and the charity sector to deliver.
Connection with industry is vital to understand the skills gap and how education can support developing young people to be better equipped for the future world of work. This not only covers technical skill for roles but also wider capabilities to help them navigate the changing world.
Universities are keen to develop and retain talent in their local communities – more collaboration between industry and academia is needed to tap into these skills and develop them (not just through graduate programmes).
Focusing curriculums more on skills of the future, developing young people with stronger core capabilities: critical thinking, innovation, change ready, self-leadership, resilience, and adaptability, etc. Much more than job/technical skills ability is required.
Employers have the appetite to support young people but more needs to be done by policy makers to make it easier for them to do so.

Comments from We Are Futures:

Sharing future workforce planning / demands so young people understand the skills needed in specific sectors and where the opportunities lie for them.
Involvement in curriculum design (both at school/FE/University level so that qualifications being offered are fit for purpose for new roles and young people can understand the pathways available into them.
Providing a work placement as an integral part of the course so that young people can practice and further develop their skills in the workplace.

What can be done to ensure that enough apprenticeship and traineeship placements are available for young people? Is the apprenticeship levy the right way to achieve a continuing supply of opportunities?

The Apprenticeship Levy is paid by large employers, based on employers across the UK, but the allocation of those funds is not in the control of these employers in the devolved nations. We would like to see employers having more control over how this money is spent in these devolved nations and would support a UK wide consistent approach.

We also note the following:

More flexibility is needed in how employers can spend the levy. Costs include attraction and recruitment of apprentices, administration of the programme, apprentice salary subsidy, pay for additional professional qualifications, which may not be included in the standard.
Whilst understanding the need to focus on young people – we must not forget the reskilling of older people into new careers and offering apprenticeship to all ages and both new and existing employees to develop new knowledge, skills, and capabilities.
The apprenticeship proposition is significantly different across the devolved nations, in relation to the programmes available, content and structure of the programmes, funding, training provider provision. For larger employers who work across the UK this is causing significant challenged.
Incorporating bootcamps into apprenticeships where an apprentice receives intensive training for an initial period (c. 3 months), aligning training provider activity more closely with what actually happens in the workplace and allowing more flexibility in how programmes are structured to suit job families would make an apprentice a more attractive option.
It should be made easier for specialist training providers to partner with larger apprenticeship training providers to deliver specialist training programmes for employers.
Apprenticeship standards should focus on the meta skills required for a role to allow sufficient flexibility for employers to work with training providers on tailoring programmes to meet their immediate resourcing needs on an ongoing basis.
A more flexible and timely approach to signing off apprentices in the workplace by accredited employers with robust performance management systems aligned to industry standards would be beneficial.
Apprenticeship providers should have access to levy funding to cover the burden of administration and support required to manage multiple apprenticeship training providers, government agencies and funding systems across the four nations if the burden itself cannot be removed with a simplified UK based approach.
The 20% off the job training should be replaced with an outcome-based measure that assesses whether the apprentice is meeting the knowledge, skills, and behaviour requirements within agreed deadlines.
The functional skills assessment should be overhauled so that it reflects the maths and English requirements normally required in the workplace rather than mirroring the GCSE assessment process. An alternative work-based accreditation process should be introduced for older, more experienced, or international workers who have exceptional maths and English skills but not the equivalent GCSE qualification.

Comments from Career Ready:

Graduate / degree and modern apprenticeships provide amazing opportunities for young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, it is our view that the apprenticeship levy in its current format is not working. According to The Edge Foundation almost 50% of apprenticeship starts are now by those over 25 and two thirds are ‘conversions’ from existing employees. Moreover, according to The Open University, levy paying organisations have only withdrawn 8% of the funds available to them - £144,000,000 out of £1,800,000,000, £1.65bn is untouched. In our most recent research report carried out in partnership with Opinium, we had two recommendations for policy makers and employers to further boost opportunities:

Many employers are already providing high quality opportunities for young people; however, it is imperative that this is expanded further. ‘The Young Person’s Guarantee’ in Scotland is a prime example of the level of expansion required. It is also crucial that we make it easier for employers to provide such support, so, in England, we have been calling for the government to unlock the apprenticeship levy to give employers the flexibility to use it for pre-apprenticeship workplace activities such as paid internships. As our research shows, not only will this equip young people with the core workplace skills they need in the workplace, with 63% reporting an increase in time management skills and 59% a boost in planning and organising skills, but it will help boost social mobility and level up areas across the UK
We need to boost the capacity of SMEs to provide paid internships in coastal, rural, and market towns, where SMEs are the backbone of the local economy. SMEs can be drivers of localised social mobility opportunities, yet they are often unable to provide paid opportunities due to limited resources. One solution is to enhance the power of LEP Networks to give SMEs the financial support they need to provide paid opportunities for young people. A further creative initiative is Internship Investment Partnerships which would see two businesses split the cost of the paid internship, with the young person spending time between the two organisations over a four-week period. This model has been successfully used by Career Ready in Scotland for several years.

Comments from We Are Futures:

Provide apprenticeship coaches / advisers that are on hand to support young people to apply for apprenticeships after leaving education. Once they leave school, they miss out on the support network that they had to help them identify opportunities and make applications.

What economic sectors present opportunities for sustainable, quality jobs for young people? How can we ensure these opportunities are capitalised on and that skills meet demand, particularly for green jobs?

Rather than focusing on sectors, NatWest Group’s view is that the focus should be on building core skills. Jobs are changing rapidly so whilst highlighting industry needs is important, cultivating adaptable skills that span different sectors so that people can retrain if/when required should be prioritised.

How might future youth labour market interventions best be targeted towards particular groups, sectors or regions? Which ones should be targeted?

We know that needs across regions and communities impacted will vary. Through CareerSense we are developing a new programme for NEETs that will align to specific regions and community needs. The detail of this needs to be finalised, but we are exploring how a combined programme of peer to peer mentoring, skills development and work experience can better enable NEETs to enter the labour market.

We also note the following from our partners at Career Ready who state that, “interventions need to be focussed on levelling up left behind areas and less advantaged young people / those with additional needs. Primarily in coastal, market, and rural areas, along with urban areas which have suffered from economic and employment decline. Employment sectors in these regions tend to be SMEs and therefore we need to find new ways to empower them to engage with more young people, embracing diversity and inclusion.”

Appendix - Our programmes and partnerships

CareerSense

Recognising the challenges facing young people at this time, NatWest Group will shortly launch CareerSense, our employability education programme for 13-24-year olds. CareerSense is aimed at improving the employability prospects of the future workforce and is part of our Purpose strategy, championing potential to help people, families, and business to thrive. The programme will include:

Free access to a range of employability and learning content and resources via our CareerSense website.
A Skills Workshop for secondary school pupils across the UK bringing to life key skills through interactive challenges and the chance for young people to speak directly with Bank colleagues as part of our CareerSense Ambassador programme.
Insight weeks and work experience via partners such as Career Ready, The Sutton Trust and Social Mobility Foundation.
A new programme to launch later in the year for those who are not in education, employment, or training.
Continued support and sponsorship of key events and programmes that complement our programme. For example, we’re funding 1000 pupils through the Ivy House Fair Chance Funding programme over 2 years.

Dream Bigger

Dream Bigger is a fully funded programme, focused on developing transferrable entrepreneurial skills for young people across the UK. Our free online education sessions aimed at 16-18 year olds are designed to help inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs, and to encourage them to develop awareness of entrepreneurship as a future career option, increase confidence and resilience, and prepare them for the future world of work. NatWest aims to support 15,000 young people through its virtual entrepreneurial coaching platform Dream Bigger by summer this year. Dream Bigger have reached over 16,000 young people since 2019.

Recognising the importance of promoting a more diverse and inclusive representation of role models within the youth market, LGBT Youth Scotland and NatWest Dream Bigger are launching our first LGBTQ+ pilot with a rebrand of the Dream Bigger content to include representation from across the LGBTQ+ community and an offer for all participants to attend the NatWest sponsored event TransFest taking place in London this September.
NatWest have now partnered with The National Enterprise Challenge providing our online Dream Bigger workshops to the 15,000 pupils expected to participate across May/June, furthering our commitment to entrepreneurship education within the youth market and building future skills and awareness of entrepreneurship as a career path.

Our work with the Princes Trust

Since 1983, The Prince's Trust has supported more than 88,000 young people to start their own business through its Enterprise Programme. NatWest Group has been the largest and longest supporter of the Enterprise programme for more than 9 years as part of our 40+ year relationship with the Trust. The Enterprise programme provides support for young budding entrepreneurs from training and mentoring support to funding and resources.

The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship

The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship recommended accelerating development and the roll out of an enterprise course in schools and colleges. We set up an education coalition to work with partners, such as, Young Enterprise, Founders for Schools, Peter Jones Academy and The Careers & Enterprise Company, to collaborate on a common set of educational material focusing on entrepreneurship, financial literacy and self-belief, aimed at both boys and girls.

Working with the Centre for Social Justice

Through 2020, we partnered with the Centre for Social Justice on a research project into Britain’s Communities: ‘Building diverse, confident, communities and helping them thrive’. Research found that younger people have practical needs from their communities, that help bond them to their community. They ask for more traditional means of support, including finance and funding to help build skills. Their practical, educational, skills-based needs are reflected in the purpose-aligned policy solutions they seek, such as, Social Support Services, Support Organisations, Young Volunteering Programmes, Financial and Business Hubs, Funding.

10th May 2021

[1] Career Ready are a national social mobility charity. We partner with Career Ready Scotland to connect young people with industry, providing them with valuable mentoring relationships over 18 months and a four-week paid placement over summer.

[2] We partner with We Are Futures to create our award-winning financial education programme, MoneySense and our new employability education programme, CareerSense. We Are Futures work with clients to develop inspired learning and community-based programmes for young people helping to develop critical skills for the future. Both our programmes are classroom-based lessons albeit during Covid we’ve adapted our delivery to virtual engagement.

[5] Through organisations such as Speakers4Schools and Springpod (not exhaustive)