The Young Person’s Guarantee

The Young Person’s Guarantee is the Welsh Government’s key commitment to everyone under the age of 25, living in Wales, with support to gain a place in education or training, and help to get into work or become self-employed.

The comprehensive package brings together programmes designed to provide the right support at the right time for the diverse needs of young people across Wales. This includes new user friendly services to help young people find opportunities more easily.

The programme will help ensure there is no lost generation in Wales following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Phase one of the Guarantee provides young people aged 16 to 24 in Wales with:

• one simple route to access the guarantee via Working Wales - support and advice from advisers will be provided virtually, on the high street, and through improved outreach facilities across Wales
• a new course search platform, for those wanting to enter further education or higher education, to make it easier to find their choice
• self-employment advice and support available through Big Ideas Wales
• traineeships, that provide work experience and training
• training and wage incentives via the ReAct programme
• a place on one of the Welsh Government’s outreach Community Employability programmes
• help to find an apprenticeship
• a referral to one of the programmes funded by other partners, such as DWP and Local Authorities

Working Wales will support young people to secure employment, and work with employers to fill current vacancies with access to a weekly jobs bulletin and job matching facility.

The guarantee is supported by wide ranging provision which ensures young people can take up effective support that works for them. In this year alone the Welsh Government has invested:

• £390m in Sixth Forms and Further Education, providing thousands of young people with a range of academic and vocational courses, £16.4m in Educational Maintenance Allowances, £5m for extra places and an additional £33m to support young people in education to recover from the impact of the pandemic
• £152m in apprenticeships, including an £18.7m in employer incentives encouraging the recruitment of young people. Whilst this is an all age programme, around 39% of all apprentices starting in 2019 to 2020 were under the age of 25
• around £1.22bn on Higher Education student support for 2021 to 2022. In 2019 to 2020, around 60% of Welsh Higher Education students were aged 16 to 24, meaning our innovative package of maintenance grants and loans enable students, regardless of age, or household or family income, to access higher education. In the past year, Ministers have also provided £122m of additional funding to build capacity and to enable our universities to increase their hardship funding and support services to students affected by the pandemic
• £70m per annum to help people into work through a range of employability programmes including ReAct, Traineeships and Community Employability Programmes

Our next steps in the development of the guarantee will include:

• an enhanced programme for young people aiding their transition into self-employment with a package of business and financial support and advice
• increasing our focus on fair work and jobs
• specific pathways to support recruitment into growth sectors, preparing people for jobs of the future with two new flexible employability programmes (ReAct Plus and Jobs Growth Wales Plus)
• expanding our Jobs Bulletin
• reaching out to employers through our ‘We’re in your Corner’ campaign, inviting employers to connect with Business Wales and play their part in the Guarantee
• prioritising young people and net zero skills in the apprenticeship programme

Continuing our collaborative approach with:

• regional Skills Partnerships will commence engagement events to shape Guarantee provision within their region
• continuing to listen to our young people to understand how they view the support and offer available, what they want to see, and to tell us about the barriers they face