In college or a zero-hours job
Studying, working the shifts they're given, doing everything asked of them — and still nowhere near a career they chose.
Our focus
The forgotten middle.
Lots of talk about youth and unemployment right now. After several years in this space, the group we feel most strongly about is the one no strategy names.
Why the middle gets missed
Why the middle gets missed
Almost every government announcement and youth programme is built around a box: at risk of knife crime, NEET, SEND, poor mental health. Those young people absolutely need support, and we are firmly behind it.
But the biggest group we meet doesn't tick any of those boxes. They're in college or a zero-hours job, they've got a few GCSEs, they're not in trouble, and on paper they're "fine".
In reality they're anxious and stuck. No professional network, no one around them who has done what they want to do, and no idea how to get from where they are to where they want to be — while their parents do their best to help with a world of work they don't have the answers to either.
They don't trigger a referral, so no service is ever designed for them. And once they turn 18, unless they have SEND, they fall outside most support completely. These are the young people quietly losing hope, and they're the ones we want named in strategies from government and business. They are now our sole focus.
Who we build for
The forgotten middle.
We keep meeting the same young people: fine on paper, stuck in real life, and named in nobody's strategy. They are now our sole focus.
A few GCSEs, no trouble, no referral
Nothing on their record opens a door, because every door we fund is built around a label they don't have.
No network, no one who's done it
Nobody around them has done the job they want, so the quiet advice other families pass down never reaches them.
Why this matters
The scale is already in the numbers. The middle is not.
946,000
16–24 year olds not in education, employment or training
1 in 4
young people report symptoms of a probable mental health condition
~1 in 5
of the UK workforce is on insecure or variable-hours work, concentrated in the under-25s
£39bn
estimated annual cost to the UK economy of young people out of work or under-employed
What the data still misses
Every figure above counts young people at the edges — out of work entirely, or unwell enough to be recorded. The forgotten middle sits just inside the line. They are enrolled, or working a few shifts, so they are counted as fine and funded as fine.
That is the gap we work in: the young people one bad year away from those statistics, and the ones no service is designed to reach before they get there.
Support follows a label
Most funded programmes are commissioned against a category — NEET, SEND, justice-involved, at-risk. If a young person is in college or working a few shifts a week, no category fits, so no referral is ever made.
The cliff edge at 18
Statutory duties largely end at 18 unless a young person has SEND or a care background. The forgotten middle hits that edge at exactly the point they need help turning education into work.
Networks do the heavy lifting
Access to work still runs through people. Young people whose families have professional networks get introductions, advice and second chances for free. Everyone else pays for it in years.
Being 'fine' is not measured
Anxious, stuck and directionless does not show up in any dataset. Because the group is invisible in the numbers, it stays invisible in strategy.
Name them in your strategy. Then help us reach them.
Everything we build now starts with this group. Partner with us, or see the brands doing the work.