Youth Training Scheme

In the UK, a one- or two-year course of training and work experience for unemployed school leavers aged 16 and 17, from 1989 provided by employer-led Training and Enterprise Councils at local levels and renamed Youth Training.

On the basis of a government promise of training places for all school leavers without jobs, social security cover was withdrawn. However, places have not always matched demand, leaving some school leavers in financial difficulties.

Opponents of youth training argue that it is a form of cheap forced labour, that it does not provide young people with the high-technology skills that will be needed in the future, and that it is underpaid.