- With more than one million young people NEET, Prosper UK calls for an extension of the Youth Guarantee and the Jobs Guarantee after 12 months on Universal Credit, not 18.
- A national strategy for young people in the AI economy, led by Government with regions, industry and academia.
- An acceleration to curriculum updates so AI and digital skills begin in primary school, with secondary schools the bigger priority.
- A new Skills and Jobs Dashboard telling young people which jobs are growing in different parts of the country and the qualifications they need for them.
The report, “Who is preparing young people for the age of AI? A plan to get the next generation ready for work” from the centre-right movement co-chaired by Andy Street and Ruth Davidson, is published on the eve of A Level results, when hundreds of thousands of teenagers decide what to do next. Just 19,685 of the 845,485 A Level entries in England this summer are in computing. Fewer than 90,000 students sat computer science A Level, down 7% on last year.
Prosper UK recommends a national strategy for young people in the AI economy, led by Government with regions, industry and academia and delivered within a year. The strategy should reduce the number of NEETs and prepare those still in school and college for the jobs AI is creating.
The report says the UK economy could lose up to £27.6 billion and 380,000 jobs by 2030 unless digital skills improve. The UK has the highest rate of NEETs aged 18 to 24 among the 22 EU OECD economies, and 15 per cent of them are graduates.
Beneath the strategy, the report includes the following measures
- Accelerate curriculum changes so that digital and AI skills are taught from primary school and through secondary school, with content reviewed regularly to keep pace with technology and the jobs market.
- Make AI a core competence for pupils and teach the human skills AI cannot replicate, such as critical thinking, judgement and communication.
- Reform teacher training so that all teachers take in-service training in digital and AI skills, headteachers prioritise AI literacy and Ofsted reports on progress.
- Introduce a new Skills and Jobs Dashboard showing which jobs are growing in different parts of the country, which sectors are short of workers and what qualifications those roles need.
- Remove the barriers to starting a business, improve access to finance and back British start-ups in the sectors AI will reshape, including legal, insurance and life sciences.
- Track what AI is doing to jobs, with AI companies sharing usage data and communicate the findings to young people locally and nationally.
- Create more apprenticeships for under-25s in SMEs, keep BTEC funding in place in each subject until its V Level is running and align degree apprenticeship funding with university student loans, funded from savings on the triple lock and welfare reform.
Margot James, Prosper UK board member and former Minister for Digital, said:
“I spent my time as Digital Minister trying to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a technology company. The UK is third in the world for AI with the largest data centre market in Europe. Whilst we focused on this important route, what we did far less well was prepare our young people for the economy we were building.
They are going to spend their whole working lives in the AI economy. The job now is getting them ready for it.
Progress towards empowering young people with AI skills is far too slow. The technical routes for 14-year-olds announced by the Prime Minister and school curriculum changes are not due to reach pupils until September 2028.
The government has no coordinated plan to connect schools, the skills system and the AI economy. Leadership is urgently required to help young people up the ladder. A national strategy and a new approach to employment can give them the skills to succeed in the AI age.”
Read the full report
Download Prosper UK’s report: Who is preparing young people for the age of AI? A plan to get the next generation ready for work.