The Lib Dems have vowed to end the NEET crisis, as they laid out plans to reform post-16 education including strengthening work experience and job support for school pupils. Speaking at the Liberal Democrats’ autumn conference in Brighton on Saturday, education spokesperson Munira Wilson MP described the plans as “the most ambitious offer from any party”. Wilson suggested 14 – the age from which the Labour government plans to introduce vocational pathways – is too early for young people to make career decisions. “When I was 14, I wanted to be a French teacher,” she said. “I thought I had it sussed…And look at me now.” She also suggested Labour’s plan will mean children from less advantaged backgrounds could be “funnelled down” a vocational route. “Our education system should give every young person the knowledge, the skills, the confidence, and the flexibility to pursue whatever future they choose,” she said. New baccalaureate plan Instead, the Lib Dems are proposing a new post-16 baccalaureate – an “evolution of” A-levels, which would sit alongside V- and T-levels. She said the system would encourage “pursuits of academic, creative, and technical disciplines, because no young person should be forced down a study pathway that doesn’t suit or interest them”. Wilson said the Lib Dems would also guarantee every young person “100 hours of work experience and professional enrichment before they turn 18”. The Labour government has introduced statutory guidance requiring schools to arrange two weeks’ work experience for secondary school pupils, having committed to this before the election. Two typical working weeks would comprise around 70 to 80 hours. Wilson told the Lib Dem conference on Saturday: “I am proud to stand here and commit to the most ambitious work experience policy of any party.” Jobs coaching for all She also committed to overhauling jobs coaching, “so that every young person has personalised job support to help them work out what and who they want to be, and crucially how to get there”. Wilson said this would build on examples from the Netherlands and Germany, giving young people “bespoke support, multiple times per year”. “A real person who will sit down with them and help them develop a five-year plan for what they want to do after they leave education.” She said the party’s plan “will be a massive task”, but added: “We owe it to our young people to be ambitious for them, because we know that Labour and the Tories won’t be”. No more NEETs Wilson pledged the Lib Dems “would make this the last generation where somebody talks about NEETs” – young people who are not in education, employment, or training. She stressed the crisis is not a failure solely of schools, instead blaming “the failed policies of this Labour government, with its jobs tax and increasing red tape on employers, making it harder to hire young people”. “It is an economic failure of jobs that don’t exist, apprenticeships never created because our economy is not going growing,” she said. “So this is not just a problem with our education system. In fact, we should be proud of what our schools do achieve”. Schools Week has approached the Lib Dems regarding how much funding the party would allocate to its reforms.