Under new plans announced by Nick Clegg yesterday, charities and businesses will be rewarded for getting unemployed young people into work or training.

The scheme will target young people who are the furthest away from the labour market – those who have recently left school with poor GCSEs and are not in any further education or training – and will reward businesses and charities that can keep them in work or training for 12 months.

We know that something needs to be done for this group of young people, and this project is a good start. Where it will be particularly successful, in my view, is in giving charities the freedom and flexibility to do what they know works best to help young people.

Whilst there is concern amongst some teachers’ unions that supporting young people outside of the educational system won’t work, we cannot ignore the fact that these young people are already out of school, and they have left with few qualifications.

If the traditional education system has already failed to find the solutions to these young people’s problems, we must start to look at what other sectors can offer.