From YOP to NEET: Different names, the same challenge

Brenig Davies

Reducing the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) has remained a social and economic priority for the Welsh Government since devolution. But the issue itself is much older.

The subject returned to the Seventh Senedd on 15 July 2026 during a Member Debate on Young People and Employment. The debate provided an opportunity to reflect on how approaches to youth employment have evolved over almost fifty years and what lessons that experience offers today.

Long before responsibility for skills and employability passed to Wales, programmes such as the Youth Opportunities Programme (YOP), the New Training Initiative (NTI) and the Youth Training Scheme (YTS) were trying different ways of helping young people move from education into work.

In Wales, this long-standing issue was shaped by profound economic and social change. Coal, steel, engineering, and manufacturing offered more than wages. They provided stability, purpose, and a clear route into adult life. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, that certainty began to disappear. As traditional industries contracted, thousands of young people left school to find that opportunities earlier generations had taken for granted no longer existed.

Unemployment became more than an economic statistic. It affected confidence, family life, and expectations about the future. Governments increasingly recognised that allowing young people to remain unemployed for lengthy periods carried lasting social and economic costs.

When the labour market changed

The Youth Opportunities Programme, introduced in 1978, reflected the circumstances of its time. It helped keep young people connected to working life through practical training, work placements, and personal support.

For many involved in YOP, rebuilding confidence was often the first step towards work. YOP was never intended to solve unemployment. Its importance lay in recognising that young people needed guidance, structure, and a realistic route into work rather than inactivity. It also encouraged policymakers to think critically about the relationship between education, training, and employment.

Learning from experience

The New Training Initiative (NTI), introduced in 1981, was followed by the Youth Training Scheme (YTS) in 1983. Together they reflected a changing understanding of youth employability. Greater emphasis was placed on recognised vocational qualifications, stronger links with employers and training which reflected labour market needs. Although these programmes were designed and funded by the UK Government through the Manpower Services Commission before devolution, many of the principles behind them continue to influence employability policy in Wales.

YTS also attracted criticism. Trade unions, educationalists, and others questioned whether the quality of training was sufficiently consistent and argued that, in some cases, trainees were used as a source of relatively inexpensive labour rather than receiving meaningful skills development. Others questioned whether the schemes created sustainable employment or managed youth unemployment during a period of painful economic restructuring. Those involved at the time nevertheless recognised that no single programme could solve youth unemployment.

The more successful initiatives helped young people prepare for opportunities when they became available. Experience also showed that successful approaches to employability depended on good quality provision, employer commitment and sustained personal support, lessons that continue to inform policy in Wales today.

By the end of the 1990s, thinking was beginning to shift. Over time, policymakers came to see that youth unemployment involved far more than a shortage of jobs, requiring coordinated support that addressed education, skills, and wider personal circumstances.

When unemployment became NEET

The introduction of the term NEET in 1999 marked more than a change in schemes. It acknowledged that some young people faced multiple barriers extending beyond unemployment. These included limited access to training, poor health, and family circumstances, all of which could make the move into work more difficult. Trainers and tutors working directly with young people had recognised many of these barriers long before the schemes changed, while research increasingly highlighted the importance of early intervention.

Broader understanding

This broader understanding has influenced public policy in Wales since devolution. Successive Welsh Governments have increasingly viewed education and employability as part of broader work preparation strategies. Careers Wales, apprenticeships, the Young Person’s Guarantee, and wider employability programmes reflect a growing recognition that preventing long-term absence from work is more effective than responding after it has occurred.

Recent figures suggest that Wales has seen gradual improvements in youth employment, with the proportion of young people who are NEET falling over recent years. However, progress is still uneven between communities and local labour markets. A highly skilled workforce remains central to economic development, social mobility, and the long-term prosperity of Wales.

Renewed political priority

The Senedd debate showed broad cross-party agreement that improving the transition from education to employment is a national priority. Those entering the labour market today face a labour market markedly different from that met by those entering YOP in 1978. Digital technology, advanced manufacturing, renewable energy and health and social care have created new opportunities, though not necessarily more jobs.

Lessons since devolution

Almost five decades of experience show that there are no simple or permanent solutions to youth unemployment. Labour markets evolve, industries appear and decline, and each generation faces different economic realities.

What has remained constant is the importance of ensuring that young people are not excluded from education, training, or employment at the beginning of adult life.

From YOP to today’s NEET strategies, policy has gradually evolved from responding mainly to unemployment towards recognising the wider educational, social, and economic factors that form opportunity.

The names of initiatives have changed, but the purpose has remained much the same: helping people develop their skills, enter work, and play a full part in Wales’s future.

Brenig Davies worked in post-16 education throughout the period covered by this article and was involved in vocational education and training policy and European skills development across Wales, the UK and Europe.

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