Young people are to benefit from more than 100,000 job and training opportunities a year under Industrial Strategy Jobs Plans published by the government with employers, opening routes into some of Britain's fastest-growing industries. The plans aim to connect training more closely with the jobs employers actually need to fill, while tackling youth unemployment.

Construction and defence routes

The headline figure covers different types of opportunity rather than 100,000 guaranteed permanent jobs. Professional and business services employers have committed to recruiting 22,400 new apprentices aged under 25 each year over five years, in areas such as accountancy, legal services and consultancy, alongside a 20 per cent increase in work experience opportunities for young people.

Local skills at the centre

Alongside that, the Construction Jobs Plan sets out 40,000 industry placements every year for eligible learners, as part of a previously announced industry ambition to create 100,000 job opportunities a year in construction. The sector employs around 2.2 million people in the UK.

Further Jobs Plans for Digital and Technologies and for Defence were due to follow in the same week. The Defence Jobs Plan was expected to help deliver thousands of opportunities for young people, including raising the number supported through defence apprenticeship programmes to at least 14,000 a year by 2035.

Devolution sits at the heart of the plans, with mayors and local skills partnerships shaping training around local jobs. Professional services firms also committed to a Good Jobs Standard, AI literacy training and greater salary transparency in early-career recruitment.

The plans were published ahead of a review into young people and work, at a time when nearly one million young people are not in employment, education or training. School and college leavers should watch for openings through official channels.

Sources: GOV.UK and Personnel Today.