Getting to work: transport connecting young people to jobs and training

One in eight young people (aged 16 to 24) in the UK are not in education, employment or training. Six in ten have never had a job. The interim report on Young People and Work, published in June 2026, analyses in depth the complex and interconnected reasons for this.

Transport emerged in the review as one significant practical barrier to young people looking for work, particularly for those without a driving licence or access to a car, and for those in rural, coastal and former industrial areas. Alan Milburn, who leads the Young People and Work review, wrote that:

Transport is the infrastructure of participation. If a young person cannot physically get to the college, the interview, the apprenticeship or the job, nothing else the system offers matters. […] A young person offered a hospitality shift finishing at 11pm in a town twelve miles from home with no evening bus has not been offered a job. They have been presented with a problem they cannot solve.

The Transport Committee is looking into the issue of transport as a barrier to young people finding and taking up employment, and what can be done to make things better. This follows on from discussion of the topic in our earlier inquiry, Buses Connecting Communities, and our scrutiny of unacceptably long waiting times for practical driving tests.

The Committee welcomes written evidence that addresses any of the following questions:

a) What impact do the cost and availability of transport options have on young people’s ability to find and stay in work;

b) What cost and other practical barriers do young people without public transport options face in using cars for getting to work;

c) How well are these transport barriers currently understood by national and local decision-makers, and what tools are available for understanding them;

d) What flexibility, powers and funding do decision-makers have to shape transport services and networks to respond to this problem;

e) What policies have proven to be effective in, or should be trialled for, improving young people’s ability to get to work;

f) Should policies be targeted, for example geographically, by age, or by other factors; and what specific issues arise in rural and other different kinds of areas;

g) What role should employers and transport operators play in breaking down transport barriers;

h) Do the actions in the Government’s Better Connected strategy aimed at “unlocking opportunities for everyone” have the potential to improve young people’s access to employment;

i) How would transport systems look and operate differently if they were focused on connecting young people to employment.

Sending us evidence

Organisations, researchers, transport operators and others with a professional interest in this topic:

Members of the public – especially people between the ages of 18 and 25 - with a personal interest in this topic:

You must be age 18 or above to complete this form.

You are welcome to make a formal submission instead if you would prefer, but the Committee is unlikely to publish submissions that refer to very personal experiences in order to protect confidentiality.

The Committee does not, as a rule, intervene or investigate individual cases, so we are unfortunately unable to help with individual requests.

More information

Further information about the terms for submitting evidence is available throughout the online submission process. Please contact us at transcom@parliament.uk if you have any questions about this.

The Transport Committee is examining how transport issues can act as a barrier to young people finding, taking up and remaining in employment or training.

The inquiry will explore:

Read the call for written evidence.

Complete our survey.

Evidence goes to the committee through Parliament’s own form. There is no way to submit it from here: Parliament publishes no API for written evidence, so the button above opens the committee’s page.

What you send is published under your name and can be quoted in the committee’s report. Keep it under 3,000 words, send it as a document rather than a letter in the body of an email, and answer the questions above rather than writing generally.

This committee accepts submissions after the closing date, though earlier is better.