The UK Year of Service programme is designed to provide 18-to 24-year-olds with placements in community-based projects in areas such as conservation and biodiversity, supporting youth community groups or helping to provide local public services.
A previous three-year pilot of the scheme saw 336 young people successfully enter into work.
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The funding from DCMS and the NCS Trust will allow for placements to be given to 100 more young people as well as offering them further skills training and support after the scheme is finished.
The NCS Trust will contribute £250,000 to fund the scheme until the end of March next year while DCMS will contribute the remaining £750,000 from April.
Mark Gifford, chief executive of the NCS Trust, said: “We have been able to offer socially beneficial roles to young people, giving them paid work that pays back.
"We are grateful for this support from the government which allows UK Year of Service to move from being a pilot programme, to a fundamental part of the NCS Trust portfolio designed to support young people in becoming world ready and work ready.”
Responding to the announcement, James Cathcart, director of Young Voices Heard, said: “The pilot for this initiative has got off to a promising start, and this announcement may prove to be a useful bridge to a career in public service for many more who would not otherwise get the opportunity.
“I’d like to hear more about how young people views will inform and influence it going forward, especially from users and hope that it continues to be scrutinised on impact and outcomes.
“In general I like the idea of a Year of Service that pays young people a living wage with training because it reminds me of when, after a period of unemployment in the 80s, I signed up to a year of fulltime volunteering in return for subsistence, mentoring and what turned out to be a life-changing introduction to youth services as a career.”
The UK Year of Service programme was set up after it was revealed that almost half of young people feel that education hasn’t properly equipped them for the job they want, and the main barrier they have to work is a lack of experience.
