Disadvantaged young people under the age of 25 should be given the opportunity to work for six months in a paid placement around the country, academy chains and charities have suggested.

The coalition, led by the higher education charity the UPP Foundation, suggests that the government should create a Community Leadership Academy scheme, which would offer 75,000 young people work placements to address the risk of mass youth unemployment.

The scheme - which they suggest is funded at £500 million per year - could create a “civic army” of young people to carry out work to support local communities, while giving them 20 per cent off-the-job support for their own development.

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Young people who have left education and are not in work or training would be able to be employed full time, or current university students could take part in the scheme part time.

The report by the coalition also calls for the government to increase the pupil premium throughout the next academic year and extend it to young people aged 16-18 in schools and colleges.

The group says the funding could be spent on provision for tutoring or catch-up academic support following widespread school closures owing to Covid-19.

Rising number of NEET young people

It comes after figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) increased by 6,000 in the first quarter of the year, even before the impact of coronavirus took effect.

There were an estimated 771,000 young people aged 16-24 in the UK classed as NEET in January to March - 6,000 more than the same period in 2019.

Richard Brabner, the director of the UPP Foundation, said: “Whether it is unemployment or disruption to education, it is becoming increasingly clear that the effects of Covid mean young people are faced with an unprecedented combination of challenges that will continue even after schools, colleges and universities reopen.

“The renewed civic action inspired by this crisis should be seized upon to help overcome them. Up and down the country, we’ve seen a swell of local community support to help the NHS and vulnerable people.

“By funding a civic army of 75,000 young people, we could utilise this community endeavour to empower and pay them to support their local areas - ‘levelling up’ disadvantaged young people and communities alike.”