UP TO 100,000 job placements aimed at helping youngsters into work will be created over the next three years under a new retailers’ scheme.

More than 40 firms including Marks & Spencer, Pets at Home, Asda and the John Lewis Partnership, will offer 18 to 24-year-olds not in employment, education or training (Neet) placements of two to four weeks to gain “the skills and confidence needed to take their first step into work.”

The scheme is in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions and comes after the former health secretary Alan Milburn warned in a recent report that one million Neets in Britain could rise to 1.25 million over the next five years unless ministers intervened.

Mr Milburn welcomed the initiative, saying: “Six in 10 young people who are Neet have never had a job.

“Unless we can increase work opportunities, Britain’s Neet crisis will get worse not better.”

Usdaw general secretary Joanne Thomas said: “We want to see the Government working with retailers and unions to tackle the growing problem of youth unemployment. We would encourage retailers to take young people on in paid work, with secure hours and opportunities for progression. 

“Where employers are using work experience schemes they must ensure that this is time limited, is done separately from current and future staffing resources and that it involves real training and a route to permanent, secure work.”