Science Parks and Innovation clusters are part of the NEET solution.
By Ruth Hall, Chief Executive, UK Science Park Association (UKSPA)
The publication of Alan Milburn’s interim review into young people highlights the scale of the challenge facing those not in employment, education or training (NEET), now at its highest level for more than a decade.
The headline figures are stark. Nearly one million young people aged 16 to 24 are recognised as NEET. Six in ten have never had a job. The review estimates the annual cost to the UK economy at £125 billion and warns that we are at risk of creating a lost generation.
While the report focuses on the barriers facing young people, it also raises an important question for those working in innovation, economic development and place-based growth: how can science parks, innovation clusters and wider innovation ecosystems create clearer pathways into opportunity?
For many years, science parks, research campuses and innovation clusters have been recognised principally for their contribution to research commercialisation, business growth and high-quality employment. Those remain essential functions, with UKSPA members supporting thousands of businesses, generating high-value jobs and helping translate research into commercial success across the UK.
Today, the most successful innovation environments are defined not only by economic performance, but also by their ability to develop local talent, create social value and contribute to a wider civic mission. The Milburn review reinforces something many of us already recognise: long-term economic success and social inclusion are inseparable.
Science parks and innovation clusters work because they convene universities, colleges, employers, investors, researchers, entrepreneurs and local communities within connected ecosystems capable of turning ideas into jobs, skills and opportunities.
That matters because one of the clearest messages in the Milburn Review is that no single institution can resolve the challenge facing young people in isolation. The review highlights weak transitions from school into work, declining apprenticeship opportunities and fragmented support systems that too often fail to align education, employment, health and opportunity coherently.
This is where science parks and innovation clusters can make a practical difference and help bridge those gaps.
Across the UKSPA network, members are already working alongside schools, colleges and universities to expose young people to sectors and careers they may never previously have encountered. Many support apprenticeships, placements, mentoring, work experience and entrepreneurship initiatives that help make pathways into innovation-led sectors more visible and accessible.
These activities are often treated as complementary to innovation activity. In practice, they are central to building sustainable innovation economies. The closed, inward-looking research environments of the past are increasingly being replaced by innovation spaces designed to be open, accessible and connected to their wider communities.
The sectors expected to drive future growth – including life sciences, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, clean energy, engineering and deep technologies – depend on a broad and resilient workforce. Without people equipped to enter and progress within these industries, there is no enduring innovation economy.
The Government’s Industrial Strategy increasingly recognises the importance of place-based growth and regional specialisation. Science parks and innovation clusters put that approach into practice, bringing together research strengths, businesses, infrastructure, investment and skills around areas of competitive advantage to create nationally significant economic infrastructure.
If these clusters are to realise their full potential, talent and skills development must be treated as strategically as physical infrastructure. Policymakers cannot focus solely on welfare reform; science parks and innovation clusters also bring together employers, educators, health services, local authorities and young people around shared outcomes.
Where young people are too often falling between disconnected institutions, science parks and innovation clusters can help create stronger alignment between education providers, employers and local communities. Better integration helps young people understand the opportunities within innovation sectors, supports routes into employment through apprenticeships, technical education and work-based learning, and ensures innovation is visible, accessible and relevant locally.
What this looks like in practice
- Innovation clusters in sectors such as life sciences, clean energy and AI attract firms that create employment across multiple skill levels, not solely for researchers and graduates. This strengthens entry-level opportunities, reduces youth out-migration and helps establish sustainable local career pathways. Over time, higher productivity supports regional economic resilience through stronger wages, increased business investment, improved tax revenues and better public services, all factors that help reduce long-term NEET risk.
- Science parks and innovation districts are increasingly acting as conveners between employers, schools, FE colleges, universities and training providers, helping ensure curricula reflect real labour-market demand rather than assumption. In many areas, they already serve as anchor institutions linking local authorities, NHS organisations, employers, educators and community partners.
- Youth entrepreneurship incubators can support young entrepreneurs through access to mentoring, workspace, seed funding and business support.
- Many SMEs lack the scale or administrative capacity to run apprenticeship programmes independently. Science parks and innovation clusters can help coordinate shared apprenticeship schemes, collective training provision and common recruitment pipelines, directly addressing one of the Milburn Review’s central concerns: the decline in high-quality entry-level vocational routes. This also creates opportunities for local hiring commitments, targeted outreach, social value requirements and inclusion goals to sit alongside economic growth objectives.
- Career navigation and early workplace exposure are equally important. Employer visits, workplace tours, STEM engagement activities and project-based learning all help young people understand careers they may otherwise never encounter. Some science parks already host careers hubs alongside access to advisers, coaches and apprenticeship support services.
- Skills bootcamps – short courses that match local vacancies, to individuals and priority subjects like cyber security, lab technician skills, green tech and engineering operations.
One of the strengths of science parks and innovation clusters is that they are intentionally built as connected communities. That creates opportunities for co-location of services; integrated support alongside economic activity, including social prescribing, onsite practitioners, peer-support networks and community-based programmes that reduce the distance between support and opportunity.
The Milburn Review rightly challenges us to think differently about how we support young people into work. As the review moves into its next phase, with the final report due in September, there is an opportunity to broaden the conversation beyond employment support alone and consider the role that places, clusters and innovation ecosystems can play.
Science parks and innovation clusters are more than centres of research and business growth. They can help connect people with skills, opportunities and careers, while supporting economic growth in the communities around them. If the UK is serious about reducing youth disengagement, strengthening productivity and delivering long-term growth, investment must extend beyond programmes and policy alone to the places that connect people with skills, employment and future prospects.
