The Big Lottery Fund has launched an £100m investment scheme aimed at tackling youth unemployment in areas of England hardest hit by the economic downturn.

21 target areas will receive funding to get more young people into employment or training. Image: Tom Julier

The Talent Match initiative, which has been developed with the help of a team of young people, is intended to support 18- to 24-year-olds to access local job opportunities and training.

The scheme will see partnerships of councils, charities, employers, and colleges working charged with deciding how to use lottery funding to match the talents and skills of young people with local opportunities.

The programme will target 21 “hotspots” across England where 18- to 24-year-olds are finding it hardest to secure jobs or training opportunities, including Cornwall, Coventry and Warwickshire, Greater Manchester, London and Sheffield.

Nat Sloane, England chair of the Big Lottery Fund, said the Talent Match scheme is one of the most ambitious programmes that the charity has ever undertaken.

“With the help of our young advisors, Talent Match can have a huge impact on the youth unemployment problem threatening to consign a generation of people to the career scrapheap when they have so much to offer,” he said.

“I am positive that Talent Match, and what we learn from it, will provide the evidence the country needs to help many more young people more effectively in the future.”

Jenna Young, 22, from Knowsley, is part of the young team advising the Big Lottery Fund on the scheme.

She said: “I can’t wait to see Talent Match up and running and I’m proud to have been part of it. I’m looking forward to going on Twitter or Facebook and seeing all sorts of great stories about how people have found jobs or training opportunities thanks to a lottery scheme that young people have created.”

The launch of Talent Match is in part a response to last year’s Commission on Youth Unemployment, which estimated that the issue would cost the economy £10.7bn in lost productivity during 2012.

David Miliband MP, who chaired the commission on behalf of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, endorsed the Talent Match scheme.


“Youth unemployment, and especially long-term youth unemployment, is one of the biggest issues facing the country,” he said. “We know this isn’t just a problem of the economic recession it goes deeper because even in the good times, too many young people didn’t find their way into a decent job.

“Talent Match, designed by young people for young people, has real potential to make a big difference to our country.”