600 organisations register interest in NEETs research Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 17:30

Almost 600 organisations have registered their interest in taking part in a ground-breaking research programme looking into the experiences of young people and adults who are not in education, employment or training (NEETs).

The research project, funded by LSIS and managed by NIACE, will involve interviews with thousands of young people and adults in England to learn how they ended up out of work, education or training. The research will also discover their aspirations and what could be done to get their lives back on track; providing invaluable experiences the sector and society can learn from.

The Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) has provided cash incentives for learning and skills providers - such as colleges, voluntary learning providers, providers of work-based learning, local adult learning services and offender learning institutions - to record interviews with current and former NEETs as part of a research project being conducted by NIACE. Almost 600 providers have applied to conduct these interviews across England.

These providers will encourage young people and adults to record their experiences through a range of media including, video, diaries, stories, poems, scrapbooks, drawings and photographs.

The resulting information will be used to inform government policy on how to reduce the record level of NEETs on a national basis and through local learning and skills providers.

Dr David Collins, LSIS Chief Executive, said:

"It is vitally important that we discover why so many people have found themselves outside education, training or employment. LSIS' mission is to continually raise standards across the learning and skills sector and providing opportunities for every single person to acquire the skills needed to get into work is something all of us in the sector must strive towards."

Alastair Thomson, Principal Advocacy Officer at NIACE, said:

"Record levels of people not in employment, education or training in England hamper our economic recovery and threaten social cohesion. And what's worse, there are adults in this situation as well as young people that are coming into the labour market. This invaluable research project will help us understand and find ways to tackle one of the most pressing issues affecting our society."