Defence jobs plan for young people delayed after union pushback
The UK government has delayed publication of a plan to bring more young people into jobs in the defence industry, after trade unions said they would not support it. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting was due to announce the plan on Thursday, according to The Guardian.
Unions representing workers in the defence sector were shown the plan just before it was due to be published. They told ministers they would not back it. Union leaders said the plan was weak and did not recognise the role unions play in creating jobs for young people, particularly apprentices. Apprentices are people who earn a wage while training for a skilled job.
Ministry of Defence (MoD) sources confirmed the delay and said the plan would be published "in due course". An MoD spokesperson said the plan was still being developed, would be published when ready, and that the department was committed to creating thousands of well-paid, unionised defence jobs. A source said further meetings between ministers and union representatives were imminent.
The plan forms part of a wider government push on youth employment. At the start of the week, ministers said plans covering business services, construction, technology and defence would be published that week. Streeting was also expected to visit Telford on Thursday to unveil a gun production facility run by the German defence company Rheinmetall.
Streeting has promised the defence jobs plan would raise the number of defence apprenticeships to at least 14,000 a year by 2035. He has also described the roughly one million 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK who are not in education, employment or training, known as NEET, as a "moral emergency".
The current proposals build on earlier announcements. In September, the government unveiled new schemes offering 18- to 24-year-olds work experience and training placements with some of Britain's largest defence firms. The Ministry of Defence said the scheme would create opportunities for 40,000 young people of that age with major firms, including BAE Systems. On 19 October, the government told the Commons it was investing £182 million to improve science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills for young people as part of its defence industrial strategy.
