Learning to labour: an exploratory analysis of the “New Deal”

Explores, through semi‐structured interviews, participants’ perceptions of the “New Deal”. The paper draws on empirical data from research on the New Deal training scheme for unemployed young people aged between 18 and 24 years. It examines the ideology underpinning the New Deal training programme in terms of structure and its projected outcome. Under the New Deal training programme unemployed young people will be offered four “options” in the areas of training or work, with the elements of a personal adviser and quality assurances incorporated to achieve this. The government insists there will be “no fifth option of life on benefit”. This paper offers some evidence that there is disillusionment among participants regarding the programme and its four options. The accounts expressed question government rhetoric that the New Deal will prove to be “radically different from previous schemes” for getting the young unemployed “off benefits” and into employment.