M&S launches 1,000 paid traineeships to tackle youth unemployment

Marks & Spencer has moved into one of Britain’s most urgent labour-market problems: the rise in young people who are not in education, employment or training. The retailer launched a paid traineeship for 16- to 24-year-olds, creating 1,000 training places across the UK and Ireland over the next 18 months, in a bid to turn retail into a route into work rather than a dead-end first job.

The programme gives participants six months of training and does not require a degree. Successful trainees can go on to further training with an eye on becoming store managers, a signal that M&S wants to sell progression as well as entry-level access. Thinus Keeve, the retailer director, said the scheme was about “opening doors for the next generation and giving talented young people the chance to thrive.”

The launch lands against a bleak backdrop. Official figures showed an estimated 1,012,000 young people aged 16 to 24 in the UK were NEET between January and March 2026, equal to 13.5% of that age group and the highest level in more than 12 years. That was up by 89,000 from the same period a year earlier. A recent review led by former Labour minister Alan Milburn warned that one in six young people could be NEET within five years unless action is taken, and argued that opportunities are “not growing, they’re shrinking.” It blamed a mix of the Covid-19 pandemic, smartphones, health issues and a sharp fall in entry-level jobs.

The policy response is widening. The government is working on a youth guarantee for 18- to 21-year-olds and has brought in former M&S chief executive Marc Bolland to help expand opportunities for young people. Bolland founded Movement to Work in 2012, and Sky reported that the initiative has helped more than 200,000 disadvantaged young people into work. Ministers have also said some of Britain’s biggest businesses will back 300,000 work experience and training placements over the next three years.

The wider concern is that AI is beginning to reshape the very jobs young people traditionally used to get a foothold. Ministers, employers and trade unions are examining how entry-level roles are changing and how firms can redesign them while still offering a path into the labour market. Last year, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that young people who have been out of work or education for 18 months would be offered a guaranteed paid work placement. For M&S, the test is whether a branded pledge can produce permanent progression at scale.