New City-REDI and Rigby Foundation report launched in Westminster setting out a roadmap for improving employment outcomes for young people in Birmingham.
On 14 July a major new report produced by City-REDI examining youth labour market challenges and opportunities facing young people in Birmingham was officially launched at a reception in Westminster attended by parliamentarians, business leaders, policymakers, academics and representatives from the education and voluntary sectors.
The report, Inspiring Futures: Improving Employment Outcomes for Young People in Birmingham, was commissioned by The Rigby Foundation and The Sir Peter Rigby Charitable Trust. Combining employer surveys, interviews with employers and policy stakeholders, a public call for evidence, focus groups with young people, labour market analysis, economic modelling and a review of national and international evidence, it considers how the local employment and skills system could better support young people into meaningful employment, education and training in Birmingham and the wider West Midlands.
The launch event was sponsored by Laurence Turner MP, and featured speeches from Steve Rigby, Liam Byrne MP and Professor Adam Tickell, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham.
This blog summarises the aim of the report, key findings and recommendations developed. The report is published at a pivotal moment for employment and skills policy nationally, regionally and locally. Its analysis sits alongside the Government’s Milburn Review into Young People and Work, which has described rising numbers of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) as a “national crisis of opportunity”.
The Perfect Storm Facing Young People in Birmingham and the West Midlands.
In the first substantive chapter in the report, The Perfect Storm Facing Young People in Birmingham and the West Midlands, we examine the ‘perfect storm’ of challenges confronting young people as they move from education into work. We identify a combination of economic, technological, structural and systemic pressures that are making transitions into employment increasingly difficult.
These include:
- A 49% decline in entry-level or “starter” jobs since 2016 across the UK.
- Persistently high youth unemployment and economic inactivity in the West Midlands compared to the England average.
- The growing impact of artificial intelligence on routine and entry-level occupations with routine cognitive roles that traditionally have been a gateway into work for young people, facing the highest automation exposure.
- Declining access to work experience, apprenticeships and part-time employment. Interviews we conducted with employers and Advisory Group members emphasised how operational pressures, regulatory requirements, and wider policy constraints are limiting the work experience opportunities that many employers in Birmingham face challenges in offering work experience.
- Persistent inequalities linked to place, ethnicity and socioeconomic background.
- Technology-driven recruitment processes, including AI-powered screening and assessment tools, creating new barriers for some young people entering the labour market.
The chapter concludes by emphasising the importance of making sure the full range of employment routes available to young people in Birmingham visible, credible and navigable.
The Policy Context and Response
In the second chapter, The Policy Context and Response, we assess the national, regional and local policy landscape. The report also reflects wider reforms including the Youth Guarantee, changes to apprenticeships through the Growth and Skills Levy and work experience requirements.
At the regional level, the report highlights how through successive devolution agreements, the West Midlands Combined Authority has gained greater responsibility for adult skills, transport, economic growth and housing, enabling more locally tailored responses to labour market challenges.
Key policies include Mayor Richard Parker’s Youth Employment Plan, which aims to create 20,000 work experience, apprenticeship and training opportunities over three years, the West Midlands Youth Guarantee Trailblazer, the West Midlands Growth Plan, and the region’s ambition to develop a workforce capable of supporting growth in advanced manufacturing, clean technologies, health and medical technologies, digital industries and professional services.
At the city level, the report recognises the substantial work already underway through Birmingham City Council. Birmingham is developing a new Employment and Skills Strategy aligned to regional plans intended to create a city-wide employment and skills system that helps people of all ages access skills and opportunities to succeed in the labour market and create good places to work, supports employers, and reduces unemployment and inactivity. The Council has redesigned its Careers and Participation Service and established a new Employment and Skills Board.
We also highlight the importance of place-based initiatives already operating across Birmingham, including activity linked to the Birmingham East Mayoral Development Corporation and associated Mayoral Development Zone, the Partnership for People and Place programme, and the Cradle to Career partnership, supported by The Rigby Foundation.
These initiatives recognise that improving employment outcomes requires coordinated action across education, transport, health and employer engagement rather than isolated interventions. INSPIRE, a Horizon Europe-funded initiative, offers important learning in terms of placing young people at the centre of shaping policy and practice.
Through participatory research including theatre, storytelling and policymaking with young people aged 14–17 across the West Midlands, INSPIRE has explored young people’s experiences of education, employment, place and opportunity, helping policymakers better understand the realities of growing up in the region.
Addressing the Challenges: Priorities for Improving Outcomes for Young People
The third chapter, Addressing the Challenges: Priorities for Improving Outcomes for Young People, draws on evidence gathered from employers, advisers and young people to identify interventions likely to have the greatest impact.
The chapter focuses on six priority themes identified through the project interviews, focus groups and employer survey:
- Improving work experience
- Improving careers advice: targeted support for progression into the changing workplace
- Improving teacher and pupil understanding of the AI-transformed job market
- Local leadership
- Campaigns for aspirational jobs
Recommendations
In the report’s final chapter, we translate the evidence into a practical programme for action, structured around four themes. We designed the recommendations to be practical and scalable, building on existing initiatives and proven approaches within Birmingham and more widely.
Topic 1: Work Experience
We call for an inclusive, modern and scalable work experience system that reflects the realities of contemporary workplaces. Recommendations include:
An independent review of existing work experience provision.
- A centralised, dedicated Work Experience Brokerage Service.
- Sector-specific pathways into Birmingham’s growth industries.
- A Parent and Carer Engagement Programme.
- A Birmingham Work Experience Passport.
- A Work Experience Travel Pass.
- Exploration of formal employer reimbursement mechanisms for the time, supervision and resource costs of hosting quality work experience,
Topic 2: AI Awareness, Knowledge and Application
Recognising the transformational impact of AI on the labour market, we set out recommendations to develop a future-ready education and employment system that equips all young people with the skills needed to succeed in an AI-shaped labour market
Recommendations include:
- An AI for Educators Training Fund.
- Deployment and scaling of an AI literacy module across schools and colleges.
- After-school AI and digital skills clubs.
Topic 3: Employer Engagement and Promoting Local Opportunities
We argue for a more connected and inclusive local employment ecosystem, with stronger employer participation and greater awareness of career opportunities available across Birmingham and the West Midlands.
Recommendations include:
- Employer or Entrepreneur in Residence roles in schools and colleges.
- A “Works in Birmingham” campaign celebrating local career opportunities.
- Promotion of employer incentives for recruiting young people.
- A philanthropically-led clothing campaign to support interviews and work placements.
- Greater use of social value requirements within procurement to encourage employer engagement.
Topic 4: Comprehensive Careers Advice
Our findings indicate the value of developing a more coherent and integrated careers system that provides all young people with high-quality, employer-informed guidance that keeps pace with a labour market reshaped by AI.
Recommendations include:
- Building on Birmingham’s redesigned Careers and Participation Service.
- Full delivery of the Gatsby Benchmarks across secondary schools.
- AI and labour-market training for careers advisers.
- Completing a system-wide review of careers provision.
- Trialling more directive pathways into academic, vocational and technical routes.
- Scale up realistic careers data provision
A Call for Collective Leadership
The report concludes that key to moving forward is improving connections across the youth employment and skills system in Birmingham.
Rather than calling for wholesale reform, we advocate for a coordinated response. Improving outcomes for young people is both a social imperative and an economic necessity, with the costs of inaction measured in lost productivity, reduced growth and unrealised potential.
This blog was written by Abigail Taylor, Research Fellow, at City-REDI, University of Birmingham.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this analysis post are those of the authors and not necessarily those of City-REDI / WMREDI or the University of Birmingham.