What the Youth Guarantee Really Means for Skills, Inclusion and Opportunity in Greater Manchester

Christine deep dives into the national Youth Guarantee initiative and how it will help assure paid work placements for 18 to 21-year-olds who aren’t earning or learning. She explores what this means for Greater Manchester and how the scheme can support skills, inclusion and opportunity. 

When you work in post-16 education in Greater Manchester, it can feel as if a new “youth guarantee” appears every few years, each one claiming to be the answer to rising NEET numbers and fragile transitions.

The latest iteration, the national Youth Guarantee, confirmed in the Autumn Budget, comes with around £820m over three years, alongside a £725m Growth and Skills Levy. Ministers are clear: this is about getting more 18–21-year-olds into education, employment or training and moving towards the 80% employment-rate target set out in the Get Britain Working white paper.

On paper, this is promising. But what does it really mean for NEET young people in Greater Manchester, for the providers who support them, and for the core skills that underpin every sustainable job, opportunity and progression route?

And crucially, what might it mean in practice for how we design programmes, support and curriculum across our colleges, ITPs, community providers and local authorities?

The Youth Guarantee: what’s actually on the table?

The headline commitment is that 18–21-year-olds on Universal Credit, who have been out of work and learning for an extended period, will be guaranteed either:

• a six-month paid work placement, or
• access to learning and apprenticeships.

Alongside this, Budget documents highlight:

• extra DWP and combined authority funding
• apprenticeship simplification and flexibility via the Growth and Skills Levy
• the Alan Milburn review into youth inactivity and health.

However, with the detail still emerging, limitations are already visible:

• The guarantee focuses heavily on a narrow benefit group, likely reaching only a fraction of the nearly 1 million NEET 16–24-year-olds in the UK.
• Support often arrives late, after many months of drift, anxiety and lost confidence.
• Funding is split across several pots, with no coherent, cross-government skills and employment strategy linking DfE and DWP.

Greater Manchester already has its own Young Person’s Guarantee and Youth Employment Fund, grounded in place-based solutions and youth voice.

The question becomes:

Will the national Youth Guarantee strengthen what Greater Manchester is already doing or simply add more complexity to an already busy landscape?

Why does the Youth Guarantee matter so much in Greater Manchester?

National NEET levels have climbed back towards 1 million, the highest since 2013. Behind that headline sit familiar patterns:

• disrupted schooling
• patchy mental health support
• caring responsibilities
• unstable housing and finances
• difficult experiences of learning, especially in Maths and English.

In Greater Manchester, skills, participation and good work remain central to the wider city-region strategy. Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s (GMCA) approach is built around integration: education, employment, health and inclusion as connected, not separate, systems.

This means the Youth Guarantee lands into a context where:

• Providers already work creatively with NEET and pre-NEET young people.
• Greater Manchester’s existing guarantees focus on voice, barriers and progression.
• Core skills: Maths, English, Digital Skills, Civic and Green skills are increasingly recognised as the language of participation, identity and opportunity.

So the real question for Greater Manchester is:

How do we use the Youth Guarantee to join the dots between NEET reduction, core skills, inclusion and good work in a way that makes sense locally?

Opportunities — if we choose to use them well

Handled thoughtfully, the Youth Guarantee could provide useful levers for Greater Manchester.

a) A clearer promise to young people

A national commitment that young adults will not be left to drift indefinitely can reinforce the Greater Manchester Young Person’s Guarantee. The shared message becomes:

“You will not be left without options. We will work with you to find a route that fits.”

For young people who have experienced trauma, exclusion, care, SEND or fractured relationships with systems, clarity and consistency matter deeply.

b) Resources for tailored, realistic pathways

Combined resources through the Youth Guarantee and Growth and Skills Levy could support:

• blended programmes mixing work placements with targeted Maths/English/Digital Skills support
• bridge programmes into apprenticeships that feel safe and achievable
• stronger wrap-around support with wellbeing, careers and coaching built in from the start.

This aligns with Greater Manchester’s ambition for an integrated skills and work system and supports wider conversations about the Greater Manchester Baccalaureate (MBacc) and broad, meaningful pathways.

c) A renewed focus on employer responsibility

Rising wage floors, costs and expectations around day-one rights mean employers need support to offer good work to young people.

The Youth Guarantee creates space for a Greater Manchester-wide conversation:

What does it mean to be a good employer of young people and how can we help you do that confidently?

Partnerships between employers, providers, GMCA and support agencies will be key.

Risks we need to name

a) A guarantee that reaches too few

If eligibility remains narrow, many young people Greater Manchester works hardest to support may fall between the cracks: 

• those struggling at 15–17
• those cycling between insecure work and short courses
• young adults with caring responsibilities or health needs.

b) Over-promising and under-delivering

A “guarantee” means little if young people experience:

• long waits
• unsuitable opportunities
• lack of support with travel, kit, digital access or mental health.

For those who already feel the system has “happened to them”, trust is easily lost.

c) Side-lining adult skills

There was no new investment in adult basic skills Maths, English, ESOL and Digital Skills, despite their crucial role in participation and employability. Youth schemes built on weak adult skills infrastructure risk instability.

What does the Youth Guarantee mean for providers and partners in Greater Manchester?

Three priorities stand out.

1. Join up the guarantees

Greater Manchester now has: 

• its own Young Person’s Guarantee and Youth Employment Fund
• the national Youth Guarantee
• levy flexibilities.

Providers can:

• map existing youth offers to identify complementarity and gaps
• use consistent language with young people
• work with GMCA to ensure local flexibilities strengthen, not dilute, what already works.

2. Put core skills and inclusion at the centre

Regardless of the policy label, the fundamentals remain: 

• Young people need applied Maths and English to navigate pay, shifts, budgeting, tenancy and progression.
• They need digital confidence as AI and online platforms reshape recruitment and training.
• They need belonging and psychological safety in learning and work.

This means designing pathways that: 

• integrate core skills into real-life contexts
• build in relational support: key workers, coaches, mentors
• avoid “parking” young people on programmes that do not move them forwards.

3. Focus on quality, not just numbers

Targets will follow, but the deeper Greater Manchester question is:

“Does this pathway expand choice, confidence and capability or does it simply move people between categories?”

Quality means co-design, employer insight, meaningful progression data and attention to who is still missing.

The Youth Guarantee, Greater Manchester: Looking ahead

The Youth Guarantee won’t, on its own, fix youth unemployment. But it can support a more hopeful story if used well.

The opportunity is to: 

• re-centre Maths, English and Digital Skills as tools of agency and inclusion
• align local and national guarantees into one coherent message
• strengthen the bridge between learning and work.

The guarantee may be national. But what it means will be decided locally through conversations, classrooms, workshops and partnerships that shape young people’s lives.

That’s where Greater Manchester has always been strongest.

How I Can Help Providers and Partners in Greater Manchester

If you’re exploring what the Youth Guarantee means for your organisation or the young people you serve, I’m always happy to talk.

My work across Greater Manchester focuses on:

• designing inclusive pathways that combine core skills with meaningful progression
• supporting teams to build confidence in working with NEET and pre-NEET learners
• helping providers translate policy change into practical, high-quality delivery
• strengthening employer partnerships and local ecosystems
• aligning programmes with Greater Manchester priorities, Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs), MBacc and Youth Guarantee ambitions.

If you’d like to explore ideas, test alignment or sense-check next steps, you’re very welcome to get in touch. 

Creating inclusive, confident and connected pathways is what I love doing.