Lottie Dexter: Cameron must put flesh on the bones of jobs plan to win over electorate

He made intricate changes to his front line education and employment team, sending a clear signal that this will be a top priority for his party. And quite rightly. If the Conservatives want to win the next election, they will need a game-changing jobs plan.

Too many people need a job. That is an undeniable fact. There are around one million young people unemployed, a figure that hasn’t fallen for five years now.

Meanwhile 900,000 people have been actively seeking work for over one year and almost 500,000 for more than 24 months. Furthermore, recent figures reveal a drastic rise in the number of women in two-parent families re-entering the workforce.

Driven by the rising costs of living and lower household incomes 200,000 women have gone back to work since 2011, compared with 185,000 between 1996 and 2011. For the same reasons, and in part due to the changes to pensions, older workers are staying in their jobs for longer and more people are coming out of retirement altogether. Not to mention the rise in non-UK nationals taking up jobs, precisely 98,000 over 12 months, which means that competition is fierce.

No doubt these statistics make painful reading for a Government that boasts – on the surface at least – a neat employment record. Overall employment is up, unemployment is down and this Government has an impressive collection of employment policies; reforms to education, training, welfare and enterprise.

They are slowly turning the juggernaut around and employment has returned to pre-recession levels. But they cannot shy away from the facts. There are groups of people that have suffered an almighty blow from this recession; women, young people, the long-term unemployed and older workers in particular.

In order to win the next election, the Conservatives must put flesh on the bones of their jobs plan and take action for those people in crippling financial pain. Of course they should. The economics stack up, the effects would be felt by families and communities across the country and a jobs plan to get Britain firing on all cylinders would pay electoral dividends – bringing untapped women and young voters to the polls.

This means empowering employers by making sure no burdensome taxes or red tape block a hiring decision. The Government must get to grips with payroll taxes once and for all. Starting with a clear cut National Insurance exemption for employers that hire one of the young unemployed, ultimately we must phase out NIC completely. The Chancellor did broach the idea of merging tax and NIC in the 2011 Budget, but worryingly he seems to have forgotten his good idea.

Despite testing the water with an Employment Allowance (effectively an NI break) he needs to be brave and go the whole hog. Getting rid of this jobs tax would lift a huge administrative burden for many businesses, giving them more scope to hire as well as making life simpler for the self-employed. This straight forward policy just makes sense.

But this will only be effective if jobseekers are “workers in waiting” with the right skills, experience and work ethic. The Government must build on its good reforms to training; the number of apprenticeship starts has doubled since 2010 and the new traineeship scheme should act as a fence at the top of a cliff, so the most vulnerable school leavers don’t need an ambulance at the bottom.

However vocational education is still seen as second rate option to university. It sounds dull and is often written off as a loser’s route. But it shouldn’t be. Work-focussed training programmes are exciting and varied, for example what better prep for the fast-paced, ever-evolving tech industry than an apprenticeship? Not to mention apprentices earn an average of £100,000 more than other employees over the course of their lifetime.

But frustratingly not enough people know and the message is not put out loud and clear. The value and vibrancy of apprenticeships must be taught in schools. Teachers must be encouraged to build a network of local employers and on-the-job training must be accessed alongside University courses on a UCAS-style platform.

The JobCentres need an overhaul too. They should be innovative organisations that support local businesses, but at present just 17 per cent of small businesses rate them as effective or very effective. The Government must take up the Centre for Social Justice’s proposals to allow the private and voluntary sector to compete for contracts and hand more powers to mangers – those people who know the local jobs landscape.

These policies help all of those who are trapped out of the labour market; they throw a lifeline to the long-term unemployed, point young people in the right direction, push those on the cusp of employment smoothly into work and get more people starting-up. Combined with policies that bring down the spiralling cost of living, these are vital ingredients of the jobs cocktail. This employment plan must be neatly packaged and well promoted so those crumbling off the labour market are reassured that help is on its way – and they know how to access it.

The Conservatives – through Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith and Matthew Hancock – have got off to a very good start. But they must be redouble these efforts and reach into millions of homes across the country to gain a Tory majority in 2015.

*Lottie Dexter is director of the Million Jobs Campaign and former communications manager at the Centre for Social Justice, set up by Iain Duncan Smith.