This International Women’s Day, a light is shining on a crisis that’s been unfolding unnoticed. Young women without formal qualifications are increasingly being locked out of work - not because of capability, but because of how entry-level hiring is designed.
According to PwC’s latest Women in Work report, tackling the NEET rate (those not in employment, education or training) among young women could boost the UK economy by £11bn. Yet the data is moving in the wrong direction. Unemployment among young women rose from 9.5% to 11.8% between 2023 and 2024, and a quarter of young women without formal qualifications are now NEET, compared with 19% of young men.
This gap points to a structural issue in how employers screen early-career talent. Many organisations say they want skills such as communication, adaptability and problem-solving, but still use formal qualifications as the primary filter for entry-level roles. Employers have both the power and the responsibility to help fix this.
The qualification trap
When entry-level hiring relies heavily on formal qualifications, we narrow the doorway before someone has even had a chance to show what they can do. That disproportionately affects young women who may have taken non-linear paths, whether through caring responsibilities, financial constraints or disrupted education. The journey to adulthood is rarely a straight line, and for many young women, it is shaped by pressures that have nothing to do with their capability or potential.
At the same time, early career roles are becoming more fluid. The irony is also that employers are not short of ambition when it comes to the skills they say they want. Communication, adaptability and problem-solving are some of the qualities that appear on job descriptions across every sector, but when it comes to making a decision of who to hire, attention falls to formal credentials instead.
The result is a mismatch between what organisations say they value and how they actually hire. Talented young women, many of whom possess exactly these skills, never make it through the first screen.
What can employers do differently?
If employers are serious about widening access, they need to rethink the signals they use at the top of the funnel. That means reducing unnecessary qualification requirements, assessing for skills and potential rather than pedigree, and creating structured, bias-aware processes that give every candidate a fair hearing. The means to do this exists; what has sometimes been lacking is the will.
Employers can take advantage of AI-powered tools that give candidates a voice through an interview to help identify individuals who would initially be disregarded for not having met conventional criteria, but do in fact possess the aptitude and problem-solving ability that employers promote as key skills. It’s about finding those people who bring valuable insights, regardless of who they are and their background. When built responsibly, science-backed AI systems can uncover patterns and connections human recruiters are likely to miss. These insights can lead to teams that are both more diverse and more capable of generating new ideas.
We need clearer pathways. Many young people, especially young women, are asking: where do I belong? If businesses can articulate what good looks like in a role, and show how someone can grow into it, they turn uncertainty into opportunity. That means moving away from job descriptions that read like wishlists of credentials, and towards ones that describe the work itself, the skills it requires and the growth it offers.
The role of the Government
The responsibility lies with employers, but they do not bear it alone. The Government has a role in aligning education, employability and industry demand more closely. That includes funding practical, skills-based routes into work, incentivising employers to open up entry pathways beyond traditional academic routes, and investing in return-to-work and re-entry programmes for those who have stepped away from the labour market.
This isn’t just a pipeline issue. It’s about confidence, clarity and access. When young women can see a credible path into work - and are assessed on what they can do, not just what’s on paper - participation rises. The economic case is clear: £11 billion is a significant cost if we continue to get this wrong. More importantly, however, this is about making sure that ambition and ability are the things that determine someone’s chances, not the route they took to get here, so that everyone gets the chance at a career they deserve.
International Women’s Day is a moment to celebrate progress, and it should also be a moment to be honest about where we are falling short. Right now, a quarter of young women without formal qualifications have no job, no training and no clear path forward. That is a design flaw in our recruitment system, but it’s one we can fix.
