IMI response to IFS/King's Trust youth employment report

Nick Connor, Chief Executive, Institute of the Motor Industry:

"These figures are deeply troubling. A decline in youth employment on this scale demands urgent, evidence-led action.

“The IFS report paints a complex picture – there are a multitude of issues at play. However, the IMI has clear evidence that one critical pathway – apprenticeships – is not currently working to bring young people into employment. Apprenticeship starts in the sector have fallen by 30% over the past decade, and levy funds in automotive are underused in comparison to other sectors.

“The IFS is right to flag that the fall in youth employment is likely to be structural, not cyclical. That is precisely why the IMI has been calling for meaningful apprenticeship reform - simplifying access for the SMEs that make up the majority of our sector, giving employers genuine flexibility to respond to fast-moving technological change, and protecting the quality standards that make automotive apprenticeships worth doing.

“The Government's investment in Technical Excellence Colleges is welcome. But bricks and mortar alone will not solve this. We need a reformed Skills Levy that actually works for small businesses, and a system that treats apprenticeships as the gold standard they should be.

“The automotive sector is ready to play its part. We have modern, technology-driven careers in EV, diagnostics and clean mobility that offer young people exactly the kind of skilled, well-paid futures this Government wants to create. But we cannot fill those roles if the system designed to bring young people into them is broken.”