Schools have just closed for summer. Thousands of youngsters have finished their exams and are eager to start making their own way in life.
It’s not their fault nearly 1million youngsters who left last year are still struggling to find employment, making it even harder for this year’s leavers to clamber on the jobs ladder.
And it’s not their fault it has become so much more expensive in the last two years for employers to hire young staff.
No wonder so many feel inadequate and suffer poor mental health.
Rather than criticise them, we need to give them a fair chance.
My family business, called David Nieper after my father, employs 250 in the former coal mining town of Alfreton.
Important message: Christopher Nieper at the David Nieper Academy
We’ve been loyal to this place for 64 years, despite the fact most of our industry has gone overseas and fashion manufacturing is virtually extinct in Britain.
I’m proud of the fact we have never gone offshore and I recognise we owe our success to local people in Alfreton with their strong work ethic.
Around 100,000 customers choose David Nieper fashion. They like their clothes being made here in Britain.
We can only do it thanks to our loyal employees – and for it to continue, we need to invest in training the next generation and the one after that.
Imagine my dismay when in 2016 our town’s only school sank to the bottom 2 per cent of the worst failing schools in England.
Not only was this terrible for the pupils and parents, it also posed an existential risk to our local economy. Ofsted described it as ‘woeful’ – and it was.
I simply wasn’t prepared to stand by. Instead, I bought a new uniform for every student, to instil pride in their appearance.
I hired a brilliant – and brave – new headteacher.
I gave the school the name of our company, the David Nieper Academy, which means I have a very personal stake, because it’s our name on the door.
It’s working. Pupil applications quickly quadrupled and today it’s Derbyshire’s third most oversubscribed school.
What I’m most proud of is every single child who left our sixth form last year had a job, an apprenticeship or a place in further or higher education.
Be quick: The Chancellor must act quickly to save a lost generation, Nieper says
Not a single one was NEET, to use the jargon – Not in Education, Employment or Training.
Hardly any of those who left age 16 were NEETs either: more than 98 per cent had secured an apprenticeship, a job or a place in education.
I like to think this has been helped by my company’s employability programme. This puts an emphasis on instilling the right attitudes to work and life beyond the school gates. It’s all been achieved at no cost to the taxpayer.
This is what is possible when companies take seriously their responsibilities to the community.
Yet our family business is being penalised for manufacturing in Britain. We look after our staff but can no longer afford to take the risk of training young people.
In the last two years hikes in the minimum wage and National Insurance have pushed up the cost of hiring 21-year-olds by 22 per cent, 18-year-olds by 41 per cent and 16-year-olds by a whopping 54 per cent.
It’s no wonder Britain has so many unemployed youngsters.
That’s why 125 business leaders have signed our letter to the chancellor asking her for tax incentives to encourage firms to take on young people and help save what will otherwise be a lost generation.
Respected business people including hotels entrepreneur Rocco Forte are also highlighting the plight of NEETs.
The private sector can help defuse Britain’s economic and social timebomb.
Businesses can unlock talent in left-behind towns like ours and bring hope back to youngsters who can’t wait for the slow wheels of government.
It’s crucial for the economy, business and young people themselves that we do not waste another generation.
Renaming the failed apprenticeship levy, as the government has done, is not the answer.
My proposal is to allow employers that hire an apprentice to offset the equivalent of two days’ pay in every week against their tax bill.
It would soon pay for itself: the Centre for Social Justice calculate government could make up to £23billion tax gain over a parliament.
It is not just me, and other business leaders warning about a lost generation.
Rachel Reeves, in her Spring statement, said that ‘if we do nothing we are writing off an entire generation. That cannot be right… and we will change it.”
You said it, Chancellor.
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