The NEET Crisis: How Employers and Communities Can Unlock Young Talent wih Sam Squire, Inspire 2 Ignite CIC

In April–June 2025, 948,000 young people aged 16–24 in the UK were classified as NEET, not in education, employment, or training. That’s 12.5% of the youth population, a worrying rise from the previous quarter and year.

In this episode, host Bill Banham sits down with Sam Squire, CEO of Inspire 2 Ignite CIC, to unpack what’s driving this crisis—and how a new generation of community leaders, educators, and employers are turning disconnection into opportunity.

Sam shares his journey from aspiring pro footballer to NEET to social impact CEO, and how that lived experience informs a practical blueprint built on psychological safety, real-world exposure, and data-driven youth engagement.

Tune in and discover: 

From disengagement to ignition

• How Inspire 2 Ignite’s programmes transform potential into purpose through experiential learning, short-form work trials, and coaching.
• Why qualification filters and rigid job criteria shut out emerging talent—and how HR teams can rethink hiring to unlock hidden value.

Action for HR leaders and educators

• Removing barriers to early-career access.
• Building local ecosystems where education, employers, and youth services collaborate in real time.
• Measuring impact through lived outcomes, not just qualifications.

Bill and Sam also preview the November 6th Disrupt Milton Keynes, produced in partnership with Inspire 2 Ignite CIC and supported by Securitas UK, bringing HR, business, and education leaders together to co-create solutions to the NEET challenge.

Agenda highlights:

• Keynote by Julius Probst, European Labor Economist at Appcast
• Disrupt talks featuring Richard Page-Brown (NFU Mutual), Isi Ojobo (North Central London ICB), Kesiena Ogefere (Copieux Group), Rebecca Poxon (Pluxee UK), and more
• Interactive learning lab led by Sam Squire, exploring data, design, and social innovation in youth employment

Connect with Sam Squire: linkedin.com/in/sam-squire-43308619b

Learn more about Inspire 2 Ignite: inspire2ignite.co.uk

Sign up for Disrupt MK 2.0: eventbrite.ca/e/disrupt-mk-20-tickets-1292640716179

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The NEET Challenge
• 2:05 Inspire To Ignite Mission
• 4:15 Sam’s Lived Experience
• 6:10 Policy, Funding, And Youth Infrastructure
• 9:25 The Human Impact Of Being NEET
• 12:04 Success Stories That Shift Trajectories
• 15:45 UK vs Netherlands: What We Can Learn
• 18:02 Education Mismatch And Systemic Barriers
• 21:00 Why Employers Miss NEET Talent
• 23:00 Disrupt Milton Keynes Preview
• 26:05 Data, Insights, And The Learning Lab
• 28:25 2025 Plans And National Scale

Transcript

SPEAKER_04: 0:02

Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talented, tech enthusiasts, and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media, and visit hrgazette.com.

SPEAKER_03: 0:26

Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Podcast. Hello, listeners. This is your host today, Bill Bannham. And in this episode, we're going to be talking about one of the most pressing challenges facing the UK labour market, the NEAT crisis, and what business leaders, educators, and community innovators can do to help close the gap. Joining me is someone who's at the forefront of this mission, a wonderful chap, Sam Squire. He's the CEO over at Inspire to Ignite CIC, a social enterprise building bridges between disengaged young people and local business opportunities. Sam and his team are also key partners in the upcoming Disrupt Milton Keynes summit happening November 6th over at Securitas HQ, where he'll be digging into the causes, consequences, and potential solutions for the skills and engagement challenges shaping the UK workforce. Sam, my friend, how are you doing? Welcome to the show today.

SPEAKER_02: 1:22

Hello, Bill, and uh thank you for having me. Really grateful for the invitation. And I've listened to your podcast uh many times on uh the web site. So yeah, thanks for having me and uh looking forward to kind of deep diving into um the event in Milton Keynes and also about the work that we do as well.

SPEAKER_03: 1:42

Yeah, so context here, listeners, is um I'm I'm I'm honored to be on the board of Inspired to Ignite. Uh they do great work, they've helped over 10,000 young people not in training, education, or employment in the um in the Milton Keynes area. In fact, now uh uh all around the UK, uh they're making a big difference. Um so we're doing this event in Milton Keynes together to help raise a bit more awareness. Sam, for our listeners who may not know, maybe you can start by telling us about Inspired to Ignite, your mission, who you serve, and how the organization came to be.

SPEAKER_02: 2:18

Yeah, so Inspired to Ignite, we are a social enterprise, and our purpose is to ensure that every young person in the UK has access to the opportunities, the networks, and the pathways to succeed and also become activated economically, but also socially and give back to their communities. And our mission um is actually serving young people that are out of education or employment and like say engaging them where they're at, inspiring them through real-world experiences, and then activating them into work or self-employment. And how the organisation came about, um Alex Alex Hughes, who is the founder of Inspire to Ignite, um, he began to recognise um in our society that there was too many young people that were weren't in educational employment. And when we launched three years ago, that number was 200,000 less than it was now. Um so we were kind of talking about this this challenge before it came a crisis, and uh and unfortunately now there's um as many young people not in educational employment, 16 to 24, um, where you can actually feel Wembley over nine times. Um so we're at the forefront of trying to tackle this crisis um and try and change the state of our nation.

SPEAKER_03: 3:37

Okay, thank you very much. Uh so I think it's around about one million young folk in the UK who are NEETs at the moment. I was reading, I was reading an article in The Guardian earlier this week um uh talking about uh growth of the UK economy, 0.1% apparently. Um, and it's also talking about uh how specifically it it's young people under 24, whether or not they're they're they're NEETs um who are um who are struggling at the moment uh to to find employment, to find opportunities and and so on. What what what's what what's your personal story, Sam? How did you come to get involved with with Inspire to Ignite?

SPEAKER_02: 4:17

Yeah, those statistics that you share, uh yeah, the the most recent national uh Office of National Statistics was about 958,000, but there's a whole not known section, and there's probably hundreds of thousands of other young people that are kind of being left behind rather than launched. Um, and and I was one of those statistics. When I and I do what I do now because when I was 19, I spent 11 years um at one football club, achieved my dream of becoming a professional footballer. Uh, and then after one conversation, my whole world flipped, and I became neat overnight, and I didn't have any further education or employment opportunities, didn't have a CV, didn't have a personal statement. And that same week I bumped into Alex, who's the founder uh of Inspired Tonight, saw him on Instagram, door stopped to him on a date with his uh now fiance, and I said to him I wanted to be a life coach. He he kind of said, What have you got to teach anyone about life? So I'm gonna prove you wrong. Uh, and then went on a journey over the next couple of years together, and then he gave me a call saying, Look, I want to give you an opportunity. I've seen you've been putting the energy into yourself to develop other young people, and I want to share the vision. And as soon as he shared the vision with me, I was brought in straight away, and uh, we haven't looked back since really. So I think lived experience and leading with that is really important, uh, especially in in business, but also social enterprise. So when I'm speaking to young people, I can really I I can feel what they felt, and that's what I want to change and with their lives and help them take back control um of their lives and give them the infrastructure and the social capital to achieve uh what they wish to do.

SPEAKER_03: 5:58

So there's been a lot in the news recently. Uh uh the government is finally getting his act together and uh trying to support uh, for example, lots of apprenticeships, which is awesome. Um, but it just feels to me like until extremely recently, uh that this cause fell on the shoulders of organizations such as Inspired to Ignite as opposed to being um championed by at the government level. What why do you think that is?

SPEAKER_02: 6:26

I think that when you look at um young people uh and their connection to potential government manifestos, uh there is always a risk that people aren't able to forecast uh the return on investment if certain investments were made um into certain youth infrastructure. And we've seen for youth uh provision funding, for example, uh I think it was between 2012 to 2022 that was cut by 71%, um, leaving well nearly 50% of youth clubs nationally closing and many other youth provisions. Um and I think the I think the way in which uh our country's been governed um over the last decade is more of a reactive approach rather than a proactive approach. And I think we need to begin funding uh downstream because otherwise in Spite to Unite and other youth provisions are having to pull young people out of the river and having to probably implement uh provisions that are probably more costly if we'd have just invested further down the stream. So I think now is a is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction um with the with the with the some of the funding, which is amazing that we can actually do this, but it's not just gonna happen and change overnight. And um, we are blessed that there's a youth guarantee, which means anyone 18 to 21 is going to have the opportunity to learn or run. Uh, and we've got some really exciting projects uh that include kind of industry construction programs, hospitality, digital uh and also coding programs, and then also uh in-person industry experiences and work experiences. Um, however, I think part of my almost my manifesto is that I think we all need to come together and make it our own problem. It shouldn't have to rely on just organizations like Inspired to Ignite or uh even government funding. It actually should be Marge at the bus stop that's chatting with Jimmy and finds out he's neat and can see how she can help him in one way. I think that's how we solve it because if we all done that, if one if a million households done that, we would solve the million that are not in educational employment. So imagine the ripple effect that that would have if all of us done it as well.

SPEAKER_01: 8:59

Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat Podcast. If you enjoy the audio content we produce, you'll love our articles on the HR Gazette. Learn more at hrgazette.com. And now back to the show.

SPEAKER_03: 9:15

What can be the impact on a young person if they are neat in terms of their confidence, in terms of their mental well-being? Can can you paint a picture of that?

SPEAKER_02: 9:26

Yeah, I think from my experience with working, I've I've now worked with over 15,000 young people in the last decade, and seeing it's really interesting to see when a young person's in a certain um circumstance, if they're not in education or employment, they what they might lose is that structure and that purpose, and self-fulfilling prophecies are real, and depending on what they've been told, it could be by their family members, it could be by educators in the past, or other people in the community, or a previous employer, they hold those comments in their mind, and that that then shapes their belief, and then their belief shapes how they feel, and then their their feelings shape how they behave. Um, and I think what we try and do is give that young person that safety space and that psychological safety to actually go, okay, you have got unconditional regard here. We accept you for what what the past has been and who you are now. Um, however, what we won't accept is for you to keep believing that. So here are some opportunities, here's a network, and try things, fail, and we'll we'll we'll we need a safety net to support you and not cliff edge. Um it's just treat like human uh and not a service provider, and they know that whatever happens, you're gonna be there for them, their whole belief system shifts, and I think experiences are really important, like because you can't like I know reading is really important, but you can have all the theory that you want, but then there's a difference between learning and then understanding, and if you're then able to implement that uh learning in the real world, then I think that's priceless.

SPEAKER_00: 11:19

Once in a while, an event series is born that shakes things up, it makes you think differently, and it leaves you inspired. That event is Disrupt HR. The format is 14 speakers, five minutes each, and slides rotate every 15 seconds. If you're an HR professional, a CEO, a technologist, or a community leader, and you've got something to say about talent, culture, or technology, disrupt is the place. It's coming soon to a city near you. Learn more at disrupt HR.co.

SPEAKER_03: 11:54

Okay, so you mentioned in that answer that it's now up to actually 15,000 young people that you and Alex and the team have been able to help. That that's amazing. I wonder if you can point to one, two, three examples that you're particularly proud of in terms of someone who came to you guys, they they needed that support, that they needed that guidance to help them learn and then and then make that next step in into either starting their own thing or going into employ employment. Um, I I can think of a few young folks from from my experiences with with you guys who've done amazing things as a result. But you know, can can you share, can you share a couple of examples?

SPEAKER_02: 12:34

I'm I'm gonna speak about people that have uh spoken at disrupts HR. So I remember Bo uh was on our very first entrepreneurial program, and I remember literally they wouldn't leave Alex, mine and Alex's side if we went out to get some food. Uh their social anxiety was through the roof. Uh, they'd had some real traumatic experiences um with education uh and had had a lot of trauma through that, and um, we had to be that safety net to help them build trust. And through our programme, we helped them develop their own uh digital artwork uh business, and then bit by bit confidence grew, they then um began to monetize on YouTube, have achieved over hundreds of thousands of views, and have now got their own kind of e-commerce store and they're self-sustaining, and they've they're now kind of um exhibiting at their what well they used to go as a their dream was to go to this conference just to go, and then now they're exhibiting. So I thought that was amazing. But when they spoke at Disrupt HR um when you and Alex were with them in Norwich, uh I think it there was round, I think it was like three or four rounds of applause and standovations whilst the tool was happening, it's only five minutes. Um so even now, like speaking about it kind of makes me emotional, um, just because I've seen the transformation. And so that's one. We've had a young person um called Michael, um, three generations of care, um, been in the care system 13 years. Uh, and again, when I first met them, this is the reality when I we went to where they lived and we had to get locked in a room because someone pulled out a knife in the room next to us, and that was a very interesting way of meeting. Um, came on our programme, went on various work experiences, and then he was pitching people at the train station asking for work experiences and going to London. And I've only recently found out last uh couple of weeks that he's passed his driving test, he's got a car, he's transitioned out of care, and he's got now um actively applying for roles and have got some unconditional offers. So that's like incredible. Uh, and then I'd probably say the other one um would be Bailey, so age 14. Um, instead of being the tomb radar, he was a loft raider, um, sold all of whatever is in his parents' loft, bought a 3D printer, um, and then created a cookie cutter company with his uh brother. And first year they just they'd done about£40,000 uh in turnover, got sued by Barbie uh because they created a Barbie cookie cutter, uh, learnt about AI before kind of the trends kicked in, and now he's doing kind of consultancy around AI, just got a house. Um just like crazy. So those are a couple that and I could probably just go on on and on.

SPEAKER_03: 15:28

But this this pod it doesn't have long enough for us to do that. But um, yeah, just three wonderful examples there. Um, I know that you've done a lot of research into this. Where where does the neat crisis in the UK stand or where does it compare? How does it compare to to other countries, perhaps within the EU, within North America? How bad is it in the UK compared to to other countries?

SPEAKER_02: 15:53

So in the UK at the moment, um there's about the youth uh unemployment percentage is about um 12, 12.8%. Uh, whereas in comparison to an uh a country such as the Netherlands, it's 3% there. So that's where I think with having Julius uh as part of the MK uh event to shut up HR then, it's going to be really interesting to actually see at a macro economic level, okay, what does that actually look like? And how can we learn from these other countries, from their models and from their systems, and uh how can we then implement that into the UK? Uh so we are blessed as well that we've got some kind of international partners now, and uh we are conducting a research project with one of our corporate partners called MM Flowers, who are like a flower um distributor um based in the UK but are now exploring kind of Netherlands um and also uh other countries. So I think from our perspective, it it kind of starts with education, but then there's a huge social, the social wraparound and the mindset to then what I said earlier around how can we help one person just with just one-to-one and make it a community issue. So I think it'd be really interesting to hear from Judas and it'd be and I'm excited to see the comparisons between his uh data and our kind of localized place-based data, um, to see if there's any kind of connections with that.

SPEAKER_03: 17:18

So, a quick follow-up to that then is is why? What why why do you think the numbers are so much more severe in the UK compared to, for example, the Netherlands?

SPEAKER_02: 17:26

The education system in the United Kingdom hasn't changed for a long time, and the world is rapidly evolving, and young people are leaving a system which probably hasn't set them up for success, um, and there's a big disconnect between education and industry. But then I think when you're looking at uh if a young person then drops out of education between the age of 16 to 18, um they're they used they the local authorities used to kind of track track a lot of those young people and what their outcomes were. Um, and especially for those that once they'd finished college or um A levels, actually there was because of some cuts into local authorities that no one tracked their outcomes. So going back to what I was saying previously about that not known number, and there used to be teams, they would kind of track the outcomes of those individuals, whereas now there's no follow-up, or if I go to a certain university, for example, outside of the local authority, they just assume that I've got a job. Um, whereas now also with there used to be kind of a supply and demand of university degrees, whereas I think because that's now an outcome within our education system, a lot of young people are now getting degrees, but then with the labour market, there's not enough jobs um to kind of fulfill those degrees. So, and also implementation of technology and AI, what used to kind of be uh your lower skilled roles, um, even at degree level, organizations are now implementing technology that can kind of do those tasks, which means that those of who are a little bit more skilled are really struggling to actually get in the door in the first place. So I think the combination of all those things and also linking back to infrastructure, transport, for example, for those that are living in rural areas, uh, where we are based, 99% of um the district we live in is rural. And if you're if it takes one bus an hour or even some areas is like one bus a day, uh, and you've got to get from A to B, and there's three, four different bus routes, uh, and also there's no income coming in, and there's a nine-month wait in this for driving lessons, and those are getting increased, there's all these barriers that just kind of overlap. So I th I wouldn't kind of put it down to one thing, um, it's I think it's that kind of snowball effect of multiple different um elements that could have caused this to build up.

SPEAKER_03: 20:05

And why do you think there's sort of a disconnect uh between uh employers? You mentioned MM Flowers, that they're doing wonderful stuff, so shout out to MM Flowers. Um but why do you think generally there's a disconnect between employers who are looking for for talent and and neats or folks are at risk of becoming neat? You know, what why why and I guess my question is why aren't more companies seizing the opportunity to employ uh young folks and young NEETs?

SPEAKER_02: 20:36

I think sometimes there may have been like a stigma of what young person that is not in education or employment is, and someone that might be hanging around uh bus stop smoking, causing trouble and drinking. I think there's a there's a little bit of that. Um, and also the unknown of they may have not done this before, so actually then trying to get that signed off within leadership teams and um the kind of corporate hierarchy can be challenging as well. Um and I think maybe how education and industry have spoken to each other previously around the the need for qualifications and the need for this, that that when you begin to almost put not put pressure but challenge organizations on actually do they need this qualification to become eligible for the recruitment process? Um, and kind of when we've actually asked that question of employers, they actually go, Do you know what we actually don't need this? Uh and we're just creating another barrier. So it allows them to kind of unlock talent pools in in new ways. So I would say it's a combination of potentially mindset and perspective, um, and also like systems that have probably been in place that haven't been reviewed uh for long periods of time, and also in some sectors, such as construction, for example, um there's huge kind of pressures being put on construction um organizations around the cost of materials going up, and actually for them to take an apprentice on, going back to that kind of return on investment, um, they may not see the return on investment for a couple of years, but it actually costs a lot now to take an apprentice on in comparison to the margins that some businesses would have had previously. Um I think like Brexit has has caused a lot of um challenges for businesses that trade internationally but also kind of get their um materials uh and products in from from other countries as well.

SPEAKER_03: 22:48

It's been a while since we've mentioned Brexit on this show. Um it doesn't go away. Doesn't go away. Okay, let's let's um let's just spend a couple of minutes now and uh preview the event on November 6th. So uh as I as I mentioned earlier on, um I'm absolutely delighted that Disrupt's going to be uh doing this event uh in partnership with Inspire to Ignite, and we've got an amazing lineup. You mentioned Julius. Uh Julius is the uh European labour market uh uh analyst and expert uh from AppCast. So he's doing a keynote. Uh we've got a bunch of Disrupt speakers. Uh I think there's six, including myself. Uh I'm gonna be up on stage for this one. Uh Richard Paige Brown from NFU Mutual, uh Izzy, who's done a whole bunch uh of talks. Um she's a wonderful example of why we do these disrupt events. First time she came up, she'd never presented in public before. Now she does wonderful things over at North Central London ICB. Uh, we've got Rebecca Poxon from Pluxy UK, and we've got Josh. Uh Josh is uh another young person that you guys have been supporting for a while. Lovely guy. He's gonna come up and share his experiences. In addition to all of that, uh, you and Ollie are gonna come up and share findings from the most recent neat report that inspired me to ignite puts together approximately every quarter. Maybe you can tell us a bit about that now, and also tell us a bit about your interactive session, uh, which is gonna take about 30-30 minutes. And uh and the idea is we're gonna get the whole audience involved with that.

SPEAKER_02: 24:21

Yeah, awesome. So, in regards to our young person ready uh platform, we've we've created some infrastructure for young people to access work experiences, mentorship, events such as the Shrupped HR, and also paid um internships, apprenticeships, and and employment. And as part of this, it's not just another job board. So, what we do is we collect um data from young people um frequently frequently in the community and understand their priorities in the workplace, and then that formalizes the uh report that we can then share with um professionals, organizations, community members to actually begin to understand okay, that's really interesting. Young people of this age in that area uh kind of view the workplace in this way, and then it helps them kind of strategize uh and be proactive in regards to how they're actually creating systems within their organizations uh for young people and then kind of attract, retain, and uh develop those young people as best as they can. Uh, so that's what we're gonna be presenting, uh, and it'd be really interesting to see how that compares to Judas's um research as well. And then in regards to the live kind of learning lab workshop, uh so what we're gonna be doing is um actually my vision is for that for this event, we want a solution to come out of it, and then that will allow us and our team, and if there are other members of the community that want to come on board with us and build out um to actually take something from the event and then look at implementing the solution. So it'll be really interactive. We'll get some kind of um whiteboard wallpaper up as well, uh, and then we'll get people connecting, brainstorming, and then kind of presenting that back at the end of the event. So it's going to be really positive, high energy, uh, and I'm really looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_03: 26:05

Yep, we've got loads of networking and uh shed load of content packed into this particular event, listeners. So if you are in the Milton Keynes area and uh and want to learn more about some of the stuff that Sam and I have been discussing today, please come along. Uh, you can find us on Ebedbrite or uh LinkedIn or Meetup.com or various other places, and you can sign up there. Um, just finally for today, Sam, what can we expect from Inspire to Ignite in 2026? You guys have had lots of exciting news in the last couple of weeks. I don't know how much we can share on this pod today, but uh the future is bright for the organization. What what are the plans for next year?

SPEAKER_02: 26:43

Yeah, so plans for next year, we've uh had some brilliant news that we've been uh funded to deliver a wide range of projects connected to the youth guarantee. So we've got uh industry-led hospitality, construction, um, tech and coding, uh, live kind of uh industry, open days, 10 hours of qualified career coaching. We've got a sweet shop of different stuff for young people. So that's gonna be something that we're gonna be doing kind of up until March and hopefully scaling up. Uh, but also kind of exploring um how we can scale our impact nationally and kind of bring other youth organizations on that journey with us. Um so stay tuned for an application that's gonna completely transform the way in which young people and organizations um connect with each other, but also how young people can access different um support networks for their own development journeys as well. So looking forward to sharing that uh next time that we catch up, Bill.

SPEAKER_03: 27:39

Excellent. And just finally, how can folks connect with you, Sam? Is that LinkedIn? You're you're you're way cooler than I am, so I bet you're on the Instagrams and the TikToks and places. And of course, how can folks learn more about Inspire to Ignite?

SPEAKER_02: 27:51

Yeah, so I'm at LinkedIn, uh just put Sam Squire and hopefully you'll find me. I'm a bit of a LinkedIn serial poster. Um, I'm on Instagram at Aspire with Squire, uh, no spaces. And uh best way to connect with us is head to our website at www.inspire toignite.co.uk. Reach out to our team and we'll be happy to get back to you.

SPEAKER_03: 28:16

Beautiful. That just leaves me to say for today. Double O Squire. Thank you very much for being my guest on this episode.

SPEAKER_02: 28:22

Thank you, Bill. Pleasure, and I'll see you at NK.

SPEAKER_03: 28:25

Listeners, as always, until next time, happy working.

SPEAKER_04: 28:31

Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette? And remember, for what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media, and visit hrgazette.com.