For thousands of young people across Britain, the hardest part of starting a career may not be finding the right ambition—it may simply be getting someone to say “come in.”
That is the problem a major new retail initiative is trying to tackle.
More than 40 of Britain’s biggest retailers have joined forces with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to create as many as 100,000 short-term work placements for young people aged 18 to 24 who are not in employment, education or training.
The initiative, known as Opening Shift, is designed to give young people something that can be surprisingly difficult to obtain when starting out: real workplace experience.
Participants will spend between two and four weeks with retailers such as Marks & Spencer, Asda, Tesco, John Lewis Partnership, Pets at Home, Greggs, Currys, Wickes and New Look. Placements will range from 16 to 35 hours a week.
But the programme is intended to be more than a brief spell behind a shop counter.
Each participant will have a workplace “buddy” to help them settle into their role and, crucially, will be guaranteed an interview when the placement ends. Where vacancies exist, retailers will be encouraged to move participants directly into paid employment.
The scale of the challenge explains why such a scheme is being launched now.
Former health secretary Alan Milburn, who is leading a government review into youth worklessness, has warned that Britain’s population of young people classified as NEET could rise from around 1 million to 1.25 million within five years without decisive action.
Behind that statistic is a much more personal problem.
Six in ten young people currently classified as NEET have never had a job, according to Milburn. That can create a cruel cycle: employers ask for experience, but young people cannot gain experience because nobody gives them their first opportunity.
In other words, no experience can mean no job—and no job means no opportunity to gain experience.
The retail industry is now attempting to break that cycle at its first link.
The programme has already secured pledges for 11,305 placements, with the ambition to expand dramatically over the next three years.
The initiative has been driven by former Marks & Spencer chief executive Marc Bolland, who was appointed earlier this year to lead a taskforce addressing Britain’s growing youth unemployment problem.
Bolland brings experience from Movement to Work, the charity he founded and chaired, which has already helped more than 200,000 unemployed young people move towards employment.
His argument is straightforward: when government and business work together, the distance between unemployment and opportunity can become much shorter.
There is also a practical financial safeguard built into the scheme. Young people receiving Universal Credit will continue receiving it while completing their placement. That avoids a major obstacle faced by benefit claimants who might otherwise have to leave the welfare system for a very short period of work, only to face the bureaucracy of rejoining it afterwards.
The government says Jobcentres will help identify and connect eligible young people with the opportunities.
For the retail sector, the initiative is also a recognition of its unique position in Britain’s employment landscape.
With stores and businesses spread across communities nationwide, retailers have the reach to offer young people opportunities close to where they live.
Yet the real test will come after the placements end.
A two-week placement cannot solve youth unemployment by itself. The ultimate measure of success will be whether it leads to lasting jobs, stronger confidence and a genuine career path.
Britain’s young people do not necessarily need another lecture about the importance of work.
Many need something much simpler:
A first chance.
Opening Shift is an attempt to provide exactly that—and, potentially, to turn the first rung of the employment ladder from an obstacle into an open door.
