MORE than £13m was pledged yesterday to stop the region’s teenagers becoming a “lost generation” – as the Government admitted that 18-yearolds are the big victims of the recession.

Children’s Secretary Ed Balls said the money would provide a “September guarantee”

of a place in education and training for “every 16 and 17-year-old who wants one”.

An extra 4,350 places will be created, by handing education authorities in the North- East a total of £5.4m. A further £8.2m will be handed out in Yorkshire.

Mr Balls also released figures suggesting it was slowly winning the battle to persuade 16 and 17-year-olds to stay on in education or training, rather than hunt for a job.

In the North-East, the proportion rose from 82 per cent in 2001 to 84 per cent in 2007, although it fell in North Yorkshire from 85 per cent to 81 per cent.

But the announcement was overshadowed by separate statistics revealing that 18- year-olds are being hit hardest by the recession and the surge in unemployment.

At the end of last year, 16.6 per cent of 18-year-olds were classified as “Neets” – not in education, employment or training – a big leap on 14.2 per cent a year earlier.

Government statisticians said the increase was the result of “reduced employment”, suggesting it will have risen even further this year as the recession bit harder.

Mr Balls admitted to the growing problem, saying: “The 18-year-olds concerned are in a tougher jobs environment.

The jobs market is under pressure and there are fewer jobs this year.”

But he insisted the extra money for college places and training proved the Government was not “repeating the mistakes of the past, by abandoning a generation of young people”. And he attacked the Conservatives for failing to match his “September guarantee”, or £655m of extra funding announced in April to allow 55,000 more young people to stay in education this year and next.

Mr Balls said: “We want to make sure we don’t have the economic and social scarring we saw in the Eighties. For that generation, the start they had in life was pretty devastating.

“That’s why our September guarantee of a place in education, training or an apprenticeship for every 16 and 17- year-old who wants one is so important.”

But David Willetts, the Conservative skills spokesman, said the number of Neets had been growing for many years before the country was plunged into recession.

Barnardo’s chief executive Martin Narey said: “In the current recession, the situation is desperate for thousands of young people who leave school at 16 wanting to work or train in the workplace.”

The proportion of 16 to 18- year-olds classed as Neets rose from 9.7 per cent to 10.3 per cent at the end of last year, of which 56 per cent were unemployed – compared with 49 per cent a year earlier.