ONE in eight young people living in Bolton do not have qualifications.

The borough has been ranked the 13th worst authority in the United Kingdom for the number of 16 to 24-year-olds who failed to gain any post-16 qualifications.

The average percentage of 16 to 24-years-olds without any qualifications is 11.5 per cent, as opposed to Bolton’s 13.1 per cent.

The figures were released by the University and College Union which said that unqualified young people were more likely to be unemployed than students with A-levels.

Bolton has had a problem with the numbers of young people aged 16 to 18-years-old dropping out of school and becoming NEET — not in education, employment or training.

Around one in ten young people are considered NEET, according to the latest statistics, although the numbers of 16 and 17-years-olds going on to further education or combining work with training has increased.

A Bolton Council spokesman said that more children were gaining GCSEs giving them a good base to continue their education after leaving school.

He said: “We have actually seen a 15.9 per cent increase over the past three years of those achieving five A*-C or equivalent at age 16 compared to 9.6 per cent national average.

“In 2009, 98.8 per cent of pupils left school at 16 with at least one qualification compared to a national average of 98.9 per cent and 93.1 per cent had achieved five A*-G compared to a national average of 92.3 per cent.

“However, we do recognise that we have more work to do on finding employment for 18-24 year olds. We are addressing this through the creation of more apprenticeships such as the Future jobs Fund as well as through working with Job Centre Plus and the college.”

The Future Jobs Fund is a Government initiative to create jobs for the long term unemployed young people. Bolton was awarded £2.5m to create jobs for 18 to 24 year-olds. A total of 360 jobs will have been made available under the initiative.