Finding that First Job

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Published: 31 July 2009

Finding that First Job

The government has launched a new campaign - 'Backing Young Britain' – uniting business and government to ‘create thousands of opportunities for young people’.

Launching the campaign Ministers announced £40m to fund over 20,000 additional internships so that graduates and non graduates can get higher quality work experience, as well as a new mentoring network to ‘help young people find their feet in a tough jobs market’.

Young people will also get more help from day one of unemployment through job clubs and 1-2-1 support in job centres for those leaving education this summer.

Ministers also announced the first 47,000 youth jobs supported by the Future Jobs Fund for young people who are unable to find work or training within a year.

Ministers called on businesses and other organisations to make a commitment to support young people in at least one of the following ways:

· work with a partnership to bid for one of the 100,000 jobs for young people from the Future Jobs Fund

· offer a volunteering place or a volunteer mentor for school or university leavers

· provide work experience places to help young people learn about work, make contacts and fill their CV

· consider a young person for a job through a work trial

· offer an internship for a graduate

· provide an apprenticeship for 16-24 year olds

· join a Local Employment Partnership to make sure job vacancies are advertised to local unemployed people

Kicking the campaign off at an event with businesses and young people in London, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Yvette Cooper announced that 117 bidders have been given the green light to create up to 47,000 innovative jobs for young people and the long term unemployed through the Government’s Future Jobs Fund.

Jobs will include sports coaches, education assistants, and roles in the green and social care sectors.

The campaign kicked off as the Government launched its Graduate Talent Pool website which has now gone live with more than 2,000 internships available to graduates from employers and businesses.

These are claimed to be the first of more than 6,000 graduate internships already pledged by employers to come on stream in weeks to come.

In addition the Government is announcing support today for a further 10,000 graduate internships – including thousands of graduate internships with small businesses. Support is also being provided for over 10,000 internships and work placements for non graduates.

The £40m additional funding for internships is part of the £5bn allocated at the Budget and pre Budget report to support the unemployed.

As unemployment is currently lower than the independent forecasts at the time of the Budget, the Government has been able to allocate this additional investment to help young people.

The Future Jobs Fund will provide funding for 150,000 jobs – 100,000 for young people and 50,000 for unemployment hotspots. Around £1bn has been allocated to the Future Jobs Fund.

The Young Persons Guarantee, which will be in place next year, will provide young people with a job, training or community work. This will give them the skills, experience & confidence that they need and will ensure that no one is left to languish on benefits without real help to improve their skills.

The guarantee will be mandatory for young people to make sure they benefit from the opportunities available.

On 27 July 2009 Schools Secretary Ed Balls and Apprenticeships Minister Iain Wright set out how investment of over £6.9bn in the education & training of 16-18 year olds will be distributed across the country. This investment supports the government’s ‘September Guarantee’ of a place in education or training for every young person who wants one.

Graduates can log on to the Graduate Talent Pool website to get matched with an internship offered by large and small businesses up and down the country.

The Talent Pool sits alongside the thousands of other opportunities available to new graduates that will help them improve their chances to get a long term and well paid career.

These include:

· around 14,000 additional postgraduate places - supported by extra Professional and Career Development Loans next year

· 250 short term placements through Mini Knowledge Transfer partnerships, rising to 500 in 2010/11

· thousands of existing volunteering options available through "V"

· 500 teach first opportunities in 2009, up 130 from 2008

Further information

Future Jobs Fund

Backing Young Britain

Local Employment Partnership

Graduate Talent Pool

Directgov: Graduate careers and postgraduate study

September Guarantee for school leavers