A government-backed report this week warned that Britain risks a lost generation as the number of 16- to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training has climbed to more than 1 million. The warning lands while ministers are searching for answers to a youth labour market that is leaving too many young people on the sidelines.
Pat McFadden is among the names being searched now because the report has turned a long-running problem into a fresh political test. Roughly 13.5% of young people in the UK are not in work or college, and among 18- to 24-year-olds the figure rises to 15.8%, far above the Dutch equivalent that has stayed below 5% for well over a decade.
The comparison is stark. Eurostat said the Dutch Neet rate was 5.3% last year when measured across the wider 15- to 29-year-old bracket, and the Resolution Foundation said Britain could have 600,000 more 18- to 24-year-olds learning or earning if it matched the Dutch rate. In 2024, 43% of 18- to 24-year-olds in the UK were in education, compared with 67% in the Netherlands; among 18-year-olds, the gap was 66% against 80%, and by age 24 it widened to 21% in Britain versus 43% in the Netherlands.
The Dutch system does not rest on one policy. It leans on vocational education, a welfare safety net designed to keep young people engaged and moving back toward work, and financial incentives that make it worthwhile for businesses to hire younger workers. Nearly 70% of Dutch 16- to 19-year-olds in upper secondary education attend an MBO school, and 35% of under-25s go on to technical or professional universities. In Britain, by contrast, only 22% of 18- to 21-year-olds were on vocational courses in 2024.
That is where the friction sits. Alan Milburn said Britain might not be able to copy the Netherlands directly because traditions, cultures and structures were different, even as he added, “But boy oh boy is there something to learn.” Robbert Dijkgraaf, who has defended the Dutch model, said vocational education was crucial to helping people find their place in work and society, calling it “often also a lifeboat,” and said the system’s mix of four days of work with one day of vocational training was central, with schools working closely with employers.
The human case is easier to hear than the policy debate. A teacher found a vulnerable student work in a shoe repair shop, and the student said it mattered to know that society saw his value and that there was a need for him. That is the gap Britain is being asked to confront now: not whether the Dutch model can be copied line for line, but whether ministers can move quickly enough to borrow what works before another cohort drifts further from education and work.
