Opening doors for the next generation and giving talented young people the chance to thrive
Across the United Kingdom and Ireland, more than a million young people stand at the threshold of adult life without work, schooling, or training to guide them forward — a silence where opportunity should be. Marks and Spencer has answered with a thousand paid traineeships for those aged sixteen to twenty-four, offering not charity but a structured path toward store management without the prerequisite of a degree. The initiative arrives alongside government moves pairing artificial intelligence with workforce development, as institutions large and small reckon with a youth unemployment crisis twelve years in the making. What is being tested, quietly and urgently, is whether targeted human investment and emerging technology together can reopen doors that a pandemic, a changing economy, and a fraying social contract have pushed shut.
- Over a million young people in the UK and Ireland are classified as NEET — not in employment, education, or training — the highest proportion in more than a decade, with warnings of a 'lost generation' growing louder.
- The entry-level jobs that once gave young people their first foothold — in retail, hospitality, cafes, and pubs — are disappearing faster than new ones are being created, leaving school-leavers with nowhere obvious to begin.
- M&S is launching 1,000 paid training places over eighteen months, framing the scheme as a genuine career pipeline rather than a stopgap, with participants able to reach store management without holding a degree.
- The government is moving simultaneously on multiple fronts: AI training for 400,000 students in disadvantaged schools, a review of how automation is reshaping entry-level roles, and a forthcoming AI jobcentre tool promising round-the-clock career guidance.
- The convergence of corporate initiative and government intervention signals institutional urgency, but whether either approach can meaningfully shift the fortunes of a million locked-out young people remains an open and pressing question.
Marks and Spencer is opening 1,000 paid training positions for young people aged sixteen to twenty-four across the UK and Ireland — a direct response to a crisis that has quietly reached its worst point in over a decade. More than a million young people are currently NEET: neither working, studying, nor in any formal training. That is roughly one in eight of their generation, adrift at the moment when direction matters most.
The scheme asks for no degree. Participants spend six months in structured training, and those who succeed move into further development with a clear route toward store management. M&S has been deliberate in its framing: this is not philanthropy but a business argument — that retail can be a real career, not merely a temporary embarrassment before something better comes along. Retail director Thinus Keeve described it as opening doors for talented young people who simply haven't been given the chance.
The backdrop is sobering. A recent review led by former minister Alan Milburn found that career opportunities for young people are not stagnant — they are actively shrinking. The causes are layered: the long shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, rising mental health challenges, the erosion of smartphone-free attention, and a labour market that has quietly shed the entry-level positions in retail and hospitality where generations of young workers once got their start.
The government is pursuing its own parallel response. Four hundred thousand students in disadvantaged schools will receive AI and technology training. A separate initiative with industry and trade unions will examine how artificial intelligence is reshaping entry-level roles and how those roles might be redesigned to keep pathways open. And Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is set to announce a trial AI assistant for jobseekers — a tool offering career coaching and application guidance at any hour, aiming to extend to everyone the kind of support that has long been a privilege of the well-resourced.
What the moment reveals is a convergence of institutions — corporate and governmental — each betting on a different lever to move the same immovable problem. M&S is wagering on direct employment and visible progression. The government is wagering on technology and training. Whether together they can reach a million young people who have, for now, been left behind remains genuinely uncertain.
Marks and Spencer is opening 1,000 paid training positions for young people over the next eighteen months, a direct response to what has become a stubborn crisis: more than a million British and Irish teenagers and young adults are neither working nor in school. That figure—the highest in over a decade—represents roughly one in eight young people in the NEET category, the acronym for those not in employment, education, or training.
The scheme targets sixteen to twenty-four-year-olds and requires no degree. Participants will complete six months of training, after which successful candidates move into further development with the possibility of becoming store managers. M&S framed the initiative not as charity but as a business case: the company wants young people to see retail as a genuine career path, not merely a stopgap first job. Thinus Keeve, the retailer's retail director, said the program was about opening doors and giving talented young people a genuine chance to build something.
The backdrop is grim. A recent review found that job and career opportunities for young people entering the workforce are not expanding—they are contracting. The author of that review, former minister Alan Milburn, warned explicitly of a potential lost generation. The causes are multiple and interlocking: the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the rise of smartphones and digital distraction, mental health challenges, and a jobs market that has shed entry-level positions at an alarming rate. High Street retailers and hospitality businesses—restaurants, cafes, pubs—have historically been where young people get their first taste of work. Those doors are closing.
The government is moving in parallel. Over the weekend, officials announced a partnership with industry and trade unions to examine how artificial intelligence will reshape entry-level roles. The initiative will study how these jobs are changing and advise businesses on redesigning positions while keeping pathways open for new workers. Separately, four hundred thousand students in disadvantaged schools across the UK will receive AI and technology training to improve their chances of reaching further education, training, or employment.
Last year, Chancellor Rachel Reeves committed to guaranteeing paid work placements for young people who had been out of work or education for eighteen months or longer. On Monday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will announce a trial of an AI assistant designed for jobseekers—what the government is calling a jobcentre in your pocket. The tool will offer round-the-clock guidance on career development and job applications, attempting to democratize access to the kind of career coaching that has long been available mainly to those with resources.
What emerges is a picture of institutions scrambling to address a problem that has no single cause and therefore no single solution. M&S is betting that direct employment and clear progression will work. The government is betting that technology and training will work. Whether either approach moves the needle on a million young people locked out of the workforce remains to be seen.
Notable Quotes
We want more young people to see retail not just as a first job, but as a career with real opportunity, real responsibility and real progression.— Thinus Keeve, M&S retail director
A potential lost generation facing shrinking, not growing, job and career opportunities.— Alan Milburn, author of youth employment review
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a retailer like M&S care about this problem enough to create a thousand positions?
Because entry-level jobs in retail have historically been the on-ramp for young people without connections or credentials. If those jobs disappear, the entire pipeline breaks. M&S is protecting its own future workforce while addressing a public problem.
The review mentions smartphones as a cause of youth unemployment. That seems odd.
It's not that phones cause unemployment directly. It's that they're part of a broader shift in how young people spend time, how they're diagnosed with mental health challenges, and how the economy itself has changed. The phones are a symptom, not the disease.
What's the difference between M&S's traineeship and the government's AI jobcentre assistant?
One is a concrete job with a paycheck and progression. The other is guidance and information. Both are necessary, but they're solving different parts of the problem. You need both a door to walk through and someone telling you where the doors are.
Is a thousand positions actually significant if there are a million NEETs?
It's a start, but you're right to notice the scale mismatch. One company can't solve a systemic problem. What matters is whether this becomes a model other employers follow, or whether it stays isolated.
Why did the government focus on disadvantaged schools specifically for the AI training?
Because those students have the fewest other resources. A kid in a wealthy area has tutors, family connections, and access to information. A kid in a disadvantaged school might not. The government is trying to level that playing field.