Joint working - Sector rallies to help young people find work

There are 959,000 young people aged 16 to 24 not in employment, education or training (Neet), according to statistics published last week, with the dreaded toll of one million now inevitable.

The government has been throwing money at the problem, from the £1bn Future Jobs Fund to the £140m to create 35,000 apprenticeships, 21,000 of them in the public sector. But it's difficult to quantify the effects of the many new initiatives. So what really works when it comes to getting young people into work?

The Future Jobs Fund, which was announced in the Budget earlier this year, is starting to get off the ground.

Aimed at unemployed 18- to 24-year-olds, it promises to create 150,000 new jobs in local authorities, third sector organisations and private companies by April 2011.

No quick fix

Last month, the first 117 Future Jobs Fund projects were announced. This equates to 47,000 new jobs for young people. John Bateman, chief executive of UK Youth, thinks it's a good start, but says action must be taken to ensure the jobs don't disappear when the cash runs out. "We want to make sure the work is quality and not short term," he says. "We don't want revolving door jobs. We want this to be an opportunity to help young people think long term about a career."

Bateman is also keen to emphasise that many of the least qualified young people will find it difficult to access opportunities without significant support. "There are a lot of young people who feel they have lost inspiration. It's about providing them with support and mentoring to help them decide what they really want to do," he says.

Apprenticeships can offer some young people the necessary balance of support and training. Many councils across the UK are recruiting young trainees using some of the £140m government cash, which was announced in January.

East Sussex County Council, for instance, is offering young people apprenticeships in youth work, administration, finance, construction and civil engineering and ICT.

Meg Stroude, lead member for children and families at East Sussex, says the council is committed to helping young people find jobs that suit them and that they will enjoy. "We are delighted to be able to offer young people a step on to the career ladder," she says.

Recruitment drive

Knowsley Council has its own drive to recruit 100 young people into apprenticeships in local businesses by September. The council is also creating 18 apprenticeships internally in areas such as the youth service, housing benefits, council tax and horticulture.

Nick Kavanagh, executive director for regeneration, economy and skills at Knowsley Council, says: "In this economic climate, this is a hugely positive initiative. The future of the economy relies on the enterprise and ability of our young people."

Apprentices in construction are also getting a leg up. Last week, the National Apprenticeship Service awarded £1m funding to ConstructionSkills, the sector skills council for the construction industry.

The money will be used to offer businesses incentives of up to £1,000 to take on young trainees through the ConstructionSkills' apprenticeship matching service, which pairs young people with suitable employers. Allan Lamb, 21, is one young person already to have benefited from this scheme .

Then there is Care First, the £75m scheme to train 50,000 unemployed young people to work in adult social care. The programme should get under way in the autumn, when young people will be able to access it through Jobcentre Plus.

APPRENTICES BOUNCE BACK - How two redundant apprentices found work again

Six months ago, CYP Now spoke to four redundant apprentices. Laid off while training and in the midst of a recession, none of them knew if they would get to complete their courses.

Here, we catch up with two of them: Allan Lamb, now 21, and 19-year-old Leon Young, both of whom have recently found a job again.

Lamb, from the Wirral, struggled to find employment for several months. The most difficult thing about losing his job was being bored all the time. He says: "Christmas last year was the worst time. I was laid off over the holidays. At the time, I didn't know if I'd just wasted a year of my life. I found things difficult, especially as only one or two others in my class were going through the same thing; most were still working.

"Then, two months ago, ConstructionSkills got in touch with me, saying a company called Smiths SD were interested in hiring an apprentice joiner through the apprenticeship matching service." Allan was recommended for the job and offered an interview with the company.

He says: "I wasn't nervous at the interview because I'd actually had another one that same morning, for a bar job, so I felt confident after having some practice. Money was becoming real tight so I needed to look for any job to tide me over. I knew I'd rather do joinery though, because I really wanted to finish my course. When I got the job and found out that they wanted me to start the next week, I was so happy."

Allan never aspired to become a joiner. "My grades at school weren't great and I didn't do too well in sixth form college so I knew that a trade would be good for me, because my apprenticeship will be a nationally recognised qualification," he says.

The combination of college work and practical experience is what makes his training so good, Allan explains. "I know that if I don't get to do something at work, I'll definitely have to tackle it at college, and then I can practice at work until I get better and better. If I only did the college course, I would do something once, tick the box and not do it again - so applying it at work would be quite difficult."

Support from colleagues at work has boosted his confidence. "Everyone at Smiths SD is really good to me. If I'm ever stuck, they'll show me the best way around something - take me through it step-by-step and explain," he says.

Despite his experience with redundancy, Allan is positive about his future. "Being laid off set me back a few months; if I'd been able to carry on, I would actually be finishing this year - but now, because of what happened, I'll qualify next year," he says. "It got to me at times, but I'm quite easy-going about things in general, and am just very happy that things have worked out the way they have."

LEON YOUNG, 19, Wainfleet

"I was looking for jobs for months, after being laid off when I was just about to complete my NVQ Level 3 in Bench Joinery," says Leon Young of Wainfleet in Lincolnshire.

"There was nothing, so I decided to start my own business. I received a lot of local support and I'm very proud because I was able to complete my course.

"I found that most business advice is a load of rubbish, so I just got a self-employed pack from HM Revenue and Customs and my mum helped me with doing the books.

"Right now I'm flat out. I want to go on holiday but am worried because there is so much for me to do - I just can't.

"I am confident that this business will work well for me. It's just me at the moment, but I reckon in three years' time, I'd like to take on an apprentice myself."

YOUTH WORKERS OF THE FUTURE FUND CREATES JOBS

The Future Jobs Fund is the government's £1bn initiative to create jobs for young people who have been unemployed for 12 months or more.

Unveiled in the Budget in April this year, the fund will be spent between 2009 and March 2011 to provide placements lasting at least six months for unemployed 18- to 24-year-olds living in areas with a high number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance.

In the first round of funding, 182 bids were received by local authorities, third sector organisations and private companies, resulting in 117 successful projects being awarded grants - creating up to 47,000 jobs.

One project set to get under way aims to help young people get into youth work. Run by London Youth, the programme will train young people over a six-month job placement.

Skills training

With £300,000 of funding, each of the 50 young people targeted by the scheme will be paid the London Living Wage, receive training in transferable skills and gain a professional qualification if they want to.

The programme is based on London Youth's YouthWorks project, funded by volunteering charity V. "We are building on a proven model, which sees young people working in one of our Quality Marked youth clubs or working alongside our own staff," explains Nick Wilkie, London Youth's chief executive.

As well as helping staff to organise community projects to engage other young people, each person on the programme will be allocated £1,000 to support them to develop skills that will benefit them in the long term.

Wilkie adds: "There will be the choice of the Level 1 Foundation in Youth Work, which I am sure most will take, but we don't want to be prescriptive with them."

Extension hopes

But while London Youth is positive about the money it will receive, it is keen to stress that placements should ideally be for more than six months. Wilkie says: "It is a good start to tackling unemployment, but we are not going to fix major problems through six-month placements. We will keep up discussions with the government and hope it will consider extending the scheme."

Another concern for Wilkie is what happens once the six months end. He says: "There have been difficulties for those on Jobseeker's Allowance who go into full-time volunteering, and these need to be ironed out straight away.

"We need to know how young people will be assured they will not lose out if they move from benefits to the Future Jobs Fund and, if necessary, back to benefits."

The short-term nature of the Future Jobs Fund initiative is also a concern for David Whewell, chair of the Confederation of Heads of Young People's Services.

"Training these young people in youth work is an excellent thing," he says. "But what can be achieved in six months is key. What level they can be qualified up to in that time should not ghettoise them in the profession, as most youth workers in integrated youth support services are now trained up to Level 3."

FUTURE JOBS FUND AWARDS

Number of jobs to be created by the first funding round. In addition to these, national bids will create up to 8,500 jobs.

- Scotland, up to 5,000
- North East, up to 2,800
- Yorkshire and the Humber, up to 1,500
- East Midlands, up to 2,400
- East of England, up to 1,200
- London, up to 2,000
- South East, up to 3,300
- North West, up to 9,200
- West Midlands, up to 7,500
- Wales, up to 2,000
- South West, up to 700

Source: Department for Work and Pensions