Nottingham City has improved on last year’s record number of young people who are in education, employment or training (EET).

2820 sixteen year olds completed Year 11 last term. Of those:
• 96.9 per cent went into further education, employment and training – up from 95.1 per cent in 2014
• 2.3 per cent (66) are NEET (not in education, employment or training) down from 3.8 per cent in 2014
• 0.6 per cent (21) are ‘not known’.

Nottingham continues to have one of the lowest NEET rates of any major city in England. Only 2.3 per cent of 16-year-olds are not in any form of employment, education or training.

Futures Advice, Skills & Employment (Futures) works in partnership with Nottingham City Council and colleges to provide careers advice, information and practical help to Year 11 students in all secondary schools in Nottingham. This ensures they have a place in learning or an apprenticeship when they leave school. Advisers work with students and their families to explore the options available to them after Year 11 to help keep them motivated and focused reducing the likelihood of students dropping out of school.

Futures also directly recruit 120 young people a year who are placed with local businesses for Apprenticeships and Traineeships.

Cllr Nick McDonald, Nottingham City Council’s portfolio holder for Jobs, Growth & Transport and a Futures Board member, says: “These are the best ever figures for the numbers of 16-year-olds remaining in education or training. Ensuring our future generations have the best possible to start to life is incredibly important not only for them but also for the future economy of this city. We live in a time of great change, and young people need to be fully equipped to take advantage of new career opportunities available to them. They can only do this if they remain in learning or training.”

John Yarham, Chief Executive of Futures, says: “The Nottingham City Year 11 destination figures we’ve announced today are the best on record. Out of 2820 Year 11 leavers, only 66 are not in any form of training or education, and particularly impressive is the number of those who we know nothing about. This achievement is down to the hard work of our team of committed and dedicated careers advisers, of Nottingham City schools and post 16 education and training organisations with which we work in partnership to ensure we give the possible support to Nottingham’s youngsters.”