Originally posted @ 3:47 pm, Thu 3rd Sep 2009
Youth unemployment is the public's fourth highest priority. In South Derbyshire, young people are the public's second highest concern.
Labour announced a new stage in its Backing Young Britain campaign yesterday - http://interactive.bis.gov.uk/backingyoungbritain/
Details follow, but the activity contrasts starkly with the inactivity and resignation of the Tories in the early eighties, when I graduated. I was unemployed for over 16 months and was part of the Midlands People's March for Jobs in 1982.
At a recent rally for manufacturing jobs in Birmingham, I was re-united with one of the banners used.
We cannot write off a generation, like was done in the eighties.
Further info:
"Over 150 top British employers have thrown their weight behind Backing Young Britain. Government and employers are pledging an extra 85,000 opportunities for young people today. These range from Morrisons pledging new training for every one of its 36,000 employees under the age of 25, to Government providing help to get 45,000 young people into jobs in retail, tourism, leisure and hospitality. "
There are also 5,000 new opportunities, including apprenticeships from companies
In July, the Government announced the first 47,000 jobs from the £1bn Future Jobs Fund, which will create 100,000 new jobs targeted at young people.
The Government also announced 45,000 new training and support opportunities to help young people move into sectors that need new talent and have jobs to fill including hospitality, leisure, tourism and retail. In the last three months, over 70,000 vacancies were notified to Jobcentre Plus in retail alone, and the Government is working with industry to make sure young people get the chance to take up more of these jobs.
If young people are job ready, they will be helped into a job, with a financial incentive to employers who take them on. If they are not, they will get the training they need and then be helped to find work.
The Government also announced today that over 230,000 unemployed people have been helped into jobs through Local Employment Partnerships; with more than 25,000 employers signed up to work with Jobcentre Plus to help unemployed people back to work.
LEPs help employers to recruit more people, such as the long-term unemployed, for whom the jobs market can be particularly tough, and can involve such measures as guaranteed interviews, special recruitment processes, pre-employment training and work trials.
Young people will also get the help they need sooner: 18-24 year olds will be able to take up a new job from the Future Jobs Fund earlier – after claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance for ten months rather than a year, from April 2010.
A £6.9 billion investment programme will deliver more than 1.5 million learning opportunities for 16-18 year olds. This record investment will ensure that every school leaver who wants to stay on in education or training will have a place at school, college, in training or an apprenticeship guaranteed this September and next September.
To fulfil the Government’s ‘September Guarantee’ for school leavers during the recession, £655m of extra funding was announced in the Budget to provide an extra 55,000 places in sixth forms, colleges and training for 16-18 year olds this year and next year.
The increase in planned places for 16-18 year olds in 2009/10 compared to last year includes:
more than 34,000 extra places in school sixth forms and colleges to over 1.2 million places
more than 25,000 extra apprenticeships to over 130,000 apprenticeship starts this year and an expansion of the Entry to Employment training programme by over 13,000 places to more than 88,000 places.
Our aim is to get 50 per cent of young people into University by 2010 and expand our Higher Education programme through an additional £7 billion. From October, every 18-24 year old at risk of being unemployed for more than a year will be guaranteed a job, training, work experience.
Over 70 per cent of students who graduated in 2007/8 went into employment and around 15 per cent went onto further studies. Only a small number became unemployed (8.1 per cent) or economically inactive (5.5 per cent). Those who went onto claim Jobseekers Allowance for up to a year will be guaranteed a job, training or work experience from January. They will also be able to access jobs from the Government’s future jobs fund and take up the opportunities pledged by organisations who are Backing Young Britain.
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