An Oxfordshire man who found himself homeless at 13 but then went on to be a highly successful entrepreneur, is now setting up a scheme designed to tackle record levels of youth unemployment.

Jon Treanor wants to arrange internships for NEETS (teenagers Not in Education Employment or Training) to give them valuable experience of the workplace.

Mr Treanor, 56, who is chairman of the Milton Park-based business consultancy Conduit Partnership, and former chief executive of Oxford University spin-off company Celoxica, told The Oxford Times: “We are now piloting the scheme in Oxfordshire, but there is no reason why it shouldn’t go national in due course.

He added: “There are between 750 and 1,000 NEETS aged between 16-19 in Oxfordshire at the moment, more than half of them girls, but there are no internships for unqualified people like that.

“Clearly there is a missing link in the chain here. They need an opportunity to gain work experience.”

Mr Treanor, who is now taking a second degree at the Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy in London (having taken his first degree in Marketing and PR at the London Business School), decided to do something about it.

At the start of 2011 he co-founded the NEET Interface together with Emma Earl, a community volunteer on Oxfordshire’s Youth Offending Team, who also has an MBA from the Said Business School and is an expert in social entrepreneurship.

Early research involved what Mr Treanor calls a “soft launch” of the scheme with 30 business leaders to attend a seminar at Frilford Heath Golf Club (which has since signed up as a supporter).

He said: “The response was extremely positive with 71 per cent saying they would take a NEET. Now we have several young people already working in eight-week or 12-week internships — and some actually in employment as a result.”

One such success story is 18-year-old Patrick Toplis. He took up an internship with Abingdon company Dreamcarhire, which loans out super-cars including Ferraris, Bentleys and Aston Martins.

He told The Oxford Times: “When I first came I was going nowhere. Then I resat a couple of exams while working here and now, thanks to Dreamcarhire, which has agreed to sponsor me, I am planning to go to college next year — probably to study mechanical engineering.”

As a result, he has a full-time job working with the cars he loves, a rented place of his own in which to live with his girlfriend, Sharon (who also has a job), and a small car. In short, he has self-respect and dignity. He added: “I would advise anyone in the position I was in to go to the NEET Interface and get work experience. You have to work for it but it opens doors. And you get to socialise with different groups of people.”

That seems sound advice, considering that Government figures released yesterday show that youth unemployment is at record levels — even for the well qualified.

Nationally, youth unemployment is now running at 991,000 and the number of 16 and 17-year-olds out of work increased by 3,000 to 205,000.

That has prompted the Government to launch work academies offering a combination of training, work experience and a job interview for up to 50,000 people over the next two years.

Mr Treanor plans to formally launch the NEET Interface on November 25.

He said: “There is a need for business people to work with the local authorities and that is where the NEET Interface comes in.

“We aim to take the pain away and produce a win, win, win scheme: the NEETs win because they get work experience, the company wins because it gets someone to work for them, and society as a whole wins because this problem is addressed.”

But what about the money side of things? Might NEET Interface not leave itself open to accusations of employers exploiting young and vulnerable people by obtaining their labour cheaply?

Mr Treanor said: “We want to avoid that accusation like the plague and we are putting a lot of safeguards in place.

“These are internships, not jobs that we offer. Internships are offered, by many MPs for instance, to highly qualified people, and these could be open to similar accusations.”

The scheme is not pretending to offer jobs where there are no jobs — it is simply a scheme to help young people gain work experience and, as Mr Treanor put it: “take the problem by the scruff of the neck and offer hope where there was little hope before”.

He has praise for the aims and aspirations of the county council in respect of its efforts to help young people but says his idea is to do exactly “what it says on the tin” . . . provide an interface between employers and NEETS.

And who could be better placed to do that than Mr Treanor — who has been both in his time?

Last year, he achieved a brief period of national fame when he appeared on a reality BBC2 TV show called The Big Silence, in which he and four other participants had to remain silent for a total of 11 days — with the help of Benedictine monks.

No talking was allowed except for a one-hour daily counselling session and recording a short diary on tape. The silent treatment happened first at Worth Abbey in West Sussex and then at St Bino’s Catholic Centre in north Wales.

He told The Oxford Times: “It was a life-changing experience for me and the NEET Interface scheme is one of its manifestations. Before that I was a cynical businessman.”

He added: “Originally I wanted to start NEET Interface along the lines of an old-fashioned Industrial and Provident Society, but it was just too complicated for the modern world. So it is now a social enterprise instead.

“Communities have changed so much, but I think local people should still look after local people. Our county should be accountable for what goes on here.”

The team at NEET interface now consists of: Jon Treanor, chairman; Ms Earl, co-founder and director; Jon Fissenden, secretary and director and Katie Roberts, who is the day-to-day driver of the organisation.

Mr Fissenden has his own financial adviser’s business, Amber Wealth Creation, having previously worked for the Co-operative Insurance Society.

He also has interests in social enterprises and is chairman of North Oxford Golf Club.

Ms Roberts, now in the final stages of taking a degree in social work, previously worked for Oxfordshire County Council’s Youth Offending Service, Family Intervention Project, Youth Service, and Pre-Court and Prevention Team.

She is the only member of the team who is paid a salary, and this she receives from subscriptions gained from participating companies.

The Government, of course, would welcome all this as a prime example of the Big Society, but Mr Treanor says his politics are irrelevant and that he is “a dyed in the wool humanitarian”.

The scheme relies much on mentoring. Mr Treanor received help from the monk Christopher Jamieson; and former NEET Patrick Toplis received mentoring from Dreamcarhire employee Eddie Turner.