CHRISTOPHER NIEPER FOUNDATION – WRITTEN EVIDENCE (YUN0066)

Youth Unemployment Committee inquiry

‘How do we create and protect jobs for young people?’

The Bishop of Derby kindly asked if we might share our recent experience with your committee and Simon Keal has asked me to forward a written submission for your interest.

I am the second generation in our 60 year old family business which employs 300 staff in Alfreton, a former coal mining town in Derbyshire. We manufacture high end women’s fashion and are one of very few in this sector to have never gone offshore. We’ve always invested in local talent.

Alfreton has a population of 22,000 where 37% have no qualifications and household income is 19% lower than regional average. Five years ago, the town’s only secondary school scored amongst the weakest 2% of all UK schools for pupil attainment, it was Derbyshire’s worst failing school having seen 5 headteachers in 5 years and had been judged inadequate by Ofsted for almost a decade.

The challenge of creating and protecting jobs for these young people is all the more when you consider 51% of this school’s pupils are classified as ‘pupil premium’ from low-income households, 40% qualify for free school meals and 23% have special educational needs.  These figures are between two and three times the national average so this forgotten town might closely fit the profile your committee is seeking to help find work.

In 2016 our family company took the unusual step of forming a multi academy trust to sponsor this secondary school. We rebranded it, we hired a new headteacher and we introduced a program of employability/life skills with the intention of giving students the keys to unlock a successful career.

I’m pleased to say that within 3 years pupil intake had tripled and the school was oversubscribed for its first time in 30 years. In 2020 we reached zero NEETS and this year 2021 we are also anticipating zero NEETS. This means every student progressed to further education or an apprenticeship. I can’t promise this will happen every year but it’s encouraging at a time of reduced job opportunities due to Covid-19.

The reason this may interest your Lords’ committee is because such a scheme attends to the cause rather than the symptoms of youth unemployment. It’s also a catalyst for economic growth and job creation from within forgotten communities and at no cost to the taxpayer.  All organisations need people and the best employers expand where the talent exists.

We are developing a blueprint of employability benchmarks which might be applied in other schools. If these were encouraged nationally, say by Ofsted, they may ease many of the challenges of youth unemployment you list in your call for evidence.  The same principle can be applied in FE/HE too as an adaptation of the German model which has proved so successful for their economy.

If the above is of interest, I’d be happy to discuss the methodology and suggest how, by a targeted skills tax credit, this could form the basis of an economic strategy to create and protect jobs for young people.

8th June 2021