{"id":1026147,"date":"2026-06-14T13:40:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T13:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1026147\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T13:40:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T13:40:22","slug":"the-european-country-with-almost-no-youth-unemployment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1026147\/","title":{"rendered":"The European country with almost no youth unemployment"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do you solve a problem like youth unemployment<\/a>, which has hit its highest level in Britain since 2013?<\/p>\n

The latest data shows that there are now more than 1 million 16-24 year olds who are not in education, employment or training (NEET)<\/a> across the UK.<\/p>\n

Welfare Secretary Pat McFadden is looking across the North Sea to the Netherlands for solutions, where the NEET rate is the lowest in Europe at 4.1 per cent. This is less than a third of the UK\u2019s rate, which stands at 13.5 per cent.<\/p>\n

While visiting Dutch construction apprentices on a building site, McFadden noted that if Britain\u2019s NEET rate mirrored the Dutch rate, 600,000 more young adults would be in work. <\/p>\n

Over coffee and stroopwafels, 21-year-old Loet van Berkel told the cabinet minister about his apprenticeship as a groundworker at the major Dutch construction company BAM.<\/p>\n

Loet was around 14 when he realised school wasn\u2019t for him and, by 16, he was on a different path. After a short-term job at pizza chain Domino\u2019s, he switched to construction, where he is supported by a team of people who are not only teaching him his trade but are also available to support him with anything he might need, including personal issues, which could involve discussing his housing situation or mental health. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk most evenings,\u201d Loet says, smiling at Ramon, his apprenticeship mentor. <\/p>\n

Loet has had so much success at work that he hopes BAM will keep him on. He\u2019s also been able to move out of his parents\u2019 house and is now renting his own place. <\/p>\n

\"WorkWork and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden visits Dutch apprentices on a construction site<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has struggled to gain support from within his own party to reform Britain\u2019s welfare system. Last autumn, McFadden\u2019s predecessor, Liz Kendall, faced a huge rebellion from Labour MPs when she attempted to restrict Personal Independence Payments (PIP) for disabled people.<\/p>\n

McFadden took over following a reshuffle, and he is clear that the benefits system is not working, particularly for young adults and that there are serious issues with the design of Britain\u2019s Universal Credit system.<\/p>\n

From BAM, we travel to Albeda College in Rotterdam, where young people aged between 16 and 25 are learning how to be chefs, lawyers, and hairdressers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a design flaw in our system, which was built into Universal Credit in the way it was designed,\u201d McFadden said, while sampling a lunch prepared by the students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is too easy for people to be signed off and written off, with them then receiving no help, no support, and no obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Independent think tank The Resolution Foundation<\/a> recently published a report on the Netherlands\u2019 welfare system \u2013 where there is more technical education and \u2018wraparound\u2019 support for young people \u2013 and warned the UK\u2019s use of Universal Credit \u201cmay be routing people who would have previously remained on unemployment benefits towards incapacity benefits,\u201d and locking them out of work.<\/p>\n

As boss of the department responsible for Universal Credit, McFadden was clear that he is not ready to announce any welfare changes but explained he has concluded it is a \u201cno support, no conditions regime\u201d and that inactivity is \u201cbuilt in as a design feature\u201d to the system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not, as they say, a bug\u2026 it is a feature\u201d, McFadden said. He added that he thought the \u201cUniversal Credit system was well-meant by [former Conservative Welfare Secretary] Iain Duncan Smith\u201d but that bringing health and unemployment together in one person has created \u201cunforeseen\u201d problems.<\/p>\n

\"AA trainee chef prepares lunch at a technical college in Rotterdam (Photo: Vicky Spratt\/The i Paper)<\/p>\n

At the technical college, a construction site where young apprentices were helping to lay geothermal energy pipes and at a youth hub, teachers, trainers, and support workers all said the same things: if a young person they are working with has a problem or fails to show up, they will go and find them. <\/p>\n

This could look like \u201cgoing out into the street\u201d to find out where they are or visiting them at home to find out what\u2019s wrong and encourage them back to their education, training or support appointment. It is, as one youth worker at the youth hub in Rotterdam put it, a \u201ctough love\u201d approach, but, given the Netherlands\u2019 NEET rate, it does seem to work.<\/p>\n

McFadden said he was stuck by the \u201ccontrast between [Universal Credit] and the Netherlands system, where it is very difficult to drop out of economic activity as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every time a young Dutch person looks like they might drop out of education, training or work, McFadden said he was learning that the Netherlands had set up \u201cmultiple points of intervention\u201d where \u201csomething else kicks in\u201d as a safety net. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe city government kicks in, another program kicks in\u2026 the whole system is geared to these multiple interventions, which make economic inactivity a last resort in the Netherlands rather than something that is reinforced by a system failure,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is an awfully big contrast\u201d.<\/p>\n

At present, Universal Credit costs around \u00a380bn a year according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).<\/p>\n

There will be much speculation about the direction of travel for any welfare reforms McFadden oversees in the coming months. He is currently waiting for phase two of the government\u2019s youth unemployment tsar Alan Milburn\u2019s report<\/a>, which will make recommendations about what should change. <\/p>\n

During his visit, McFadden did make one announcement<\/a>, which may be overshadowed by concerns about defence spending following his former Cabinet colleague John Healey\u2019s resignation:<\/p>\n

Instead of attending the job centre, which Milburn has warned can be intimidating and unwelcoming, young NEETs will get specialist youth hubs<\/a> \u2013 like the Netherlands \u2018jongerenpunt\u2019 \u2013 which will be located in football stadiums and other community facilities.<\/p>\n

McFadden said a total of 360 \u201cyouth hubs\u201d will be opened across Britain over the next three years, like the jongerenpunt, they will give young people access to \u201cwraparound\u201d support, which could include housing and mental health help. <\/p>\n

This approach was \u201ctaking the job centre out of the job centre,\u201d McFadden said, and \u201cmeeting young people where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another key difference between Britain and the Netherlands\u2019 approach to youth unemployment is devolution. The Dutch take a more local approach, which can be tailored to the specific needs of a region. <\/p>\n

McFadden said there is \u201ca really interesting live debate about how much of this should be done nationally, locally.\u201d He noted that some employment support, such as the Connect to Work scheme, had already been devolved but added: \u201cI think there\u2019ll be further decisions to be made on this in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The desire to get welfare reforms across the line, McFadden said, had only been \u201creinforced\u201d by what he had learned in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are supposed to be the Department of Work and Pensions,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just had skills added to our remit [and that] should be an opportunity to change the question further.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How do you solve a problem like youth unemployment, which has hit its highest level in Britain since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1026148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[23528,2000,299,5187,12,285,283478,283479],"class_list":["post-1026147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-dispatch","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-susan-miller","tag-vicky-spratt"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116748748942121948","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1026147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1026148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1026147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1026147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1026147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}