Mayors will receive £100 million to fund a scheme expanding young people's access to apprenticeships, the Chancellor declared at the Labour Party conference on Monday.
John Healey explained that the new "Local Apprenticeship Service" will use teams acting like "football scouts" to link young people with employers, including firms that have never offered apprenticeships.
Addressing delegates in Liverpool, he stated: "The best thing we can offer a young person isn’t a benefit payment, it’s a first job with training and a wage.
"Our determination to help, matched by their determination to hope."
Mr Healey framed the initiative as "a down payment" on work led by former Cabinet minister Alan Milburn to assist almost one million young people not in employment, education or training (Neet).
It was the initial proposal in a speech laying out his economic plan for the country, where he promised a "new age of industrialisation" for Britain.
The Chancellor also revealed that Rolls-Royce is investing £300 million into facilities across Derby, Bristol, Glasgow and Rotherham, calling it a "new confidence in Britain lit by this Government, driven forward by business".
Reaffirming that next month’s Budget will adhere to strict fiscal discipline, he said it would offer the public "breathing space" alongside "good growth and jobs in more places".
He warned, however, that the UK faces harsher economic realities than during his time as a junior Treasury minister under Gordon Brown’s chancellorship, placing the blame for national debt on the Conservatives.
Healey’s comments come after Prime Minister Andy Burnham acknowledged over the weekend that he and the Chancellor face a “challenging” set of circumstances at the Budget, and said he is prepared to take tough decisions to deliver his change agenda.
Speaking to the Guardian, Mr Burnham insisted his Government could both bring forward a radical reform agenda, and maintain the public finances amid the fraught economic situation.
He suggested the public would have “more respect for us if we go and grab something difficult … and say, ‘right, we’re going to do something here’, rather than constantly playing the political game before fixing the problems”.
He added: “It’s challenging, definitely, but there are still things that you can do. Always in politics, there are things that you can do. The question is sometimes, are you prepared to do them? Yeah, I am prepared to do them.”
