Youth Futures Canterbury is a collection of government agencies and education leaders who have come together to improve educational outcomes for youth in greater Christchurch.

The group is concerned to stem the flow of young people falling into the NEET trap especially in the wake of the earthquakes given the contribution education will make to recovery in greater Christchurch.

The group recognises:

• Education builds social and human capital and creates knowledge.
• Education supplies skills to the economy and provides people with the skills they need to participate in the workforce.
• There are social and individual returns to education
• The best returns come from educating youth. This is because the human capital gains from educating older people are lower and last a shorter time.
• Because youth are disproportionately represented in unemployment, the costs of getting it wrong for youth are high.

A number of documents setting out some of the issues and responses have been produced by and for Youth Futures Canterbury to support its work.