Britain’s First Job Problem: Why Career Starter Sectors Matter

By Mike Worley, Managing Director, The Opportunity Provider

For years we have talked about skills shortages, recruitment challenges and the need to build stronger talent pipelines. But every experienced employee, supervisor and manager started somewhere. Somebody gave them their first opportunity. 

For too many young people today, getting that first opportunity is becoming increasingly difficult.

The latest Office for National Statistics figures estimate that 981,000 young people aged 16 to 24 were not in education, employment or training in the UK between April and June 2026 – around 13% of the age group.

There is rightly a lot of national attention on that number. But behind it is a bigger question for employers: how easy are we making it for a young person to get onto the first rung of the career ladder?

This isn’t simply about ambition

One thing we need to be careful about is assuming young people don’t want to work.

Youth Employment UK’s 2026 Youth Voice Census heard from more than 11,500 young people. Among 17-19-year-olds, 67% said they were likely or very likely to apply for a job as their next step.

Yet only 26% believed good-quality jobs were available locally, and just 18% thought employers were supportive of hiring young people.

There is a gap there that should concern all of us.

We want young people to be work-ready, but too often we also expect them to arrive with experience before anyone has given them the chance to gain it.

Alan Milburn’s Young People and Work interim report describes this as a weakening of the “first rung” of employment. It also found that 84% of the NEET young people surveyed wanted to find a job, education or training opportunity.

That changes the question.

Rather than only asking “Is this young person ready for work?”, employers also need to ask:

“Are we ready to employ someone who may be entering the workplace for the first time?”

Because those are two very different things.

A first chance needs to be a good one

Getting somebody through the door is important.

What happens next is what determines whether that first job becomes something more.

Research from the Social Market Foundation found that more than three quarters of people said their first proper job taught them important skills, and almost three quarters said it increased their professional confidence.

But only around half reported having clear progression routes and just a third received formal internal training.

That is why we have called our new campaign First Job. Future Career.

A first job should be more than a payslip. Done well, it teaches communication, reliability, teamwork and responsibility. It builds confidence and independence. It helps somebody understand how a workplace operates and, importantly, gives them somewhere to go next.

Sometimes that young person will build a long career with the same employer or within the same sector. Sometimes they will take the skills and confidence they have developed somewhere completely different.

Both are positive outcomes.

The principle behind our campaign is therefore deliberately simple:

Give a young person a first chance – and make it a good one.

We need to recognise the sectors providing that first rung

There is understandably a huge amount of attention on the sectors expected to drive Britain’s future economic growth. But we shouldn’t overlook the sectors where millions of people actually learn how work works.

Hospitality, Retail, Adult care and Early years.

At The Opportunity Provider we describe these as Career Starter Sectors.

They operate in almost every town and community in Britain and provide something particularly valuable to a young person starting out. Real interaction with colleagues, customers, residents, children, families and managers.

They teach people to take responsibility, solve problems, communicate, work as part of a team and learn by doing.

Half of all youth payroll employment is already concentrated in wholesale and retail, accommodation and food services, and health and social care.

These sectors therefore aren’t on the edge of the youth employment debate. They are an important part of the country’s youth employment infrastructure.

And we shouldn’t talk about them as though they offer young people a temporary stop before they “figure out what they want to do” because they offer proper careers too.

The challenge is making those careers visible and making sure that first job genuinely connects to what could come afterwards.

Apprenticeships can make that connection

There are some positive changes happening within the apprenticeship system.

Foundation Apprenticeships now include catering and hospitality, retail and health and social care alongside other sectors. There is full apprenticeship training funding for eligible under-25s and, from 1st October, qualifying non-levy employers can receive a new payment of up to £2,000 when recruiting eligible new apprentices aged 16 to 24.

Those measures can help employers create opportunities. But creating an opportunity and making it successful are not the same thing.

Someone entering the workplace for the first time may need a different induction. Their manager may need more support. They may need additional help with English and maths, learning support, reasonable adjustments or confidence in the world of work.

Sometimes what makes the biggest difference is simply somebody spotting early that things aren’t going quite right and doing something about it.

That can be particularly difficult for SMEs that don’t have the recruitment and early-careers infrastructure of a large employer.

It is why our First Job. Future Career. manifesto doesn’t stop at recruitment incentives.

We are calling for a system that recognises the additional development involved in supporting younger employees, provides greater flexibility around progression and helps employers invest in the people responsible for making those first experiences successful.

Creating opportunities for young people starts with the whole workforce

There is another part of this conversation that I think sometimes gets missed. Creating more opportunities for young people isn’t only about creating completely new jobs.

Sometimes you create that first opportunity by helping somebody already in the business move forward. This can be by developing a team member so they can become a supervisor. Or helping a supervisor progress into management. It could be to support a care worker into a senior role or an early years practitioner towards leadership.

Every time somebody progresses, it can create space behind them.

That is why youth recruitment and workforce development shouldn’t be treated as separate agendas.

Done properly, they reinforce each other.

And that is one of the reasons apprenticeships remain so important. They can support somebody entering work for the first time while also developing the supervisors, managers and leaders already within the organisation.

You begin to create a genuine pipeline rather than filling one vacancy at a time.

From talking about youth employment to doing something about it

Our ambition with First Job. Future Career. is to encourage employers no matter their size, to look beyond the number of young people they recruit.

The better questions are:

• Did we create an opportunity they could genuinely access?
• Did they receive the support they needed?
• Did they develop?
• Did they feel that they belonged?
• Could they see where the opportunity might take them next?

Our Employer Commitment is built around five simple principles:

Opportunity. Support. Development. Belonging. Progression.

We are asking employers to turn support for youth employment into something tangible. That could mean creating a Foundation Apprenticeship or apprenticeship opportunity. It could mean looking again at an “entry-level” vacancy that currently asks for previous experience. It could mean changing how young people experience your recruitment process. It could mean better preparing line managers to support somebody starting their first job. Or it could simply mean making the career pathway visible from day one.

Employers shouldn’t have to do all of that alone.

At The Opportunity Provider, through HIT Training, Connect2Care and EDN Training, our role is about much more than delivering an apprenticeship standard.

We can work alongside employers on workforce planning, recruitment, apprenticeship pathways, onboarding, learning support, manager development, retention and progression.

Put simply – You create the opportunity. We make it work.

Because ultimately, success isn’t measured by how many employers pledge an opportunity for a young person. It is whether they also do something differently as a result. And whether more young people get the chance to take that first step and turn it into something bigger.

Britain doesn’t lack young people with potential. We need to make sure we keep giving that potential somewhere to start.

That is the ambition behind First Job. Future Career.