Teaching Year 10 pupils handshakes and interview answers as Britain's NEET crisis deepens

In a Year 10 classroom at Sandbach High School and Sixth Form College, the room fills with sudden chatter as teenagers pair off, sit facing each other and begin mock job interviews. There is no exam behind it. These 14- and 15-year-olds are practising firm handshakes and steady eye contact, and rehearsing answers to questions such as when they last worked in a team, or a time they made a mistake at work.

None of them has reached working age. In coming lessons they will also learn to write a CV and find out what rights they have at work. The sessions are part of dedicated careers lessons held every fortnight alongside their usual timetable.

The wider backdrop is a national problem. According to the latest estimates, nearly a million young people in the UK, one in eight of those aged 16 to 24, are not in education, employment or training, the group known as Neet. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has called the figure both a "moral failure" and an "economic catastrophe". This week a major independent review by former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn is expected to set out how the government should respond and how more young people can be brought into work. Some welfare changes have already been announced, and schools are expected to be asked to do more to make pupils "work-ready". Any recommendations would build on existing plans to let students in England choose new vocational GCSEs from age 14.

The pupils themselves see the point. Ati, 14, says she has learned things she did not know, including how to speak to different people and that you are expected to walk into a room and introduce yourself. Myla, also 14, says Year 10 is "not too early", since part-time jobs may be only two years away and practice helps with nerves. Riley, 15, who hopes to go into acting or perhaps work with animals, says the lessons teach you about yourself and how to improve.

Careers teacher Paisley Charlton says the aim is for students to feel confident attending interviews, seeking work experience and talking about themselves positively. Since the school overhauled its careers education a couple of years ago, none of its students has become Neet on leaving at 18. The emphasis starts early: Year 7 pupils take part in a "speed-networking" event with local employers, and posters setting out nine "employability principles", including resilience and problem-solving, hang in classrooms and guide every lesson. Head teacher Ellen Walton calls careers education a "moral duty" and says it should not be something that happens only at the end of school or at transition points.

Elsewhere, schools turn to outside groups. Youth Careers Collective, a charity working with dozens of London schools, brings employers into classrooms and takes disadvantaged pupils into workplaces. Chief executive Matt Lent says such skills are not always embedded in everyday school life. But he warns that improving work-readiness will not by itself end the Neet problem, and he hopes the Milburn review says so. Employers, he argues, must also take responsibility for creating accessible opportunities.

Schools and colleges in England are already legally required to run a careers programme, including expanded work experience, structured around the updated Gatsby Benchmarks. Beth Jones of the Gatsby Foundation, who developed the guidance, says the more benchmarks a school meets, the less likely its students are to leave as Neet. Careers guidance cannot remove every barrier, she says, but it helps young people navigate their futures.

The deeper pattern starts much earlier. Milburn's interim report earlier this year noted that from the age of four the system can predict who is most likely to fail. A child who starts school without basic skills such as being toilet trained is nearly three times as likely to be Neet at 16 or 17. Pupils with special educational needs, from poorer backgrounds, or with mental health problems are also more likely to be Neet.

The difficulty may be less about spotting who needs help than paying for it. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that a one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to work given how different Neet young people's circumstances are, and says the key question is how much the government will invest now in hope of a later pay-off. The Milburn review, and the funding that follows, are what to watch.