UK Government Pledge to Invest Heavily into Youth Unemployment

The Office for National Statistics has revealed that youth unemployment is at a shocking record high with one in five of those aged between 16 and 24 currently out of work.

The UK government announced a series of measures to prioritise youth employment including a £60 million commitment to getting more vulnerable young people into work, a boost to Apprenticeships and radical reforms to transform vocational education.

The measures aim to tackle some of the long-term structural barriers that stop some young people from getting a job and starting their career. A new £10 million a year innovation fund will be launched aimed at the community and voluntary sector to help in the drive to help young people find jobs.


The announcement follows pledges from over 100 large companies and tens of thousands of small companies around the country to offer work experience placements. In total the government will provide funding for up to 250,000 more apprenticeships over the next four years, and funding for 100,000 work placements over the next two years.

“There simply aren't enough jobs... and young people are being particularly hard hit.”

Stephen Timms Labour

The measures outlined in the Supporting youth employment paper are designed to ensure that young people have the opportunity to get work, to support economic growth, to advance their career prospects and encourage social mobility, and also to help fill some of the 500,000 vacancies currently in the job market.

Over the next three years, the government will invest £60 million to support the most vulnerable young people. They will:

-Provide more early access Work Programme places to vulnerable 18 year olds who are likely to be struggling to make the transition from education to work.


-Increase the capacity of Jobcentre Plus to support 16 and 17 year olds who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) to get them back into education, employment or training. This will include additional support to the 5,000 most disadvantaged 16 and 17 year olds claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, including access to work experience and work clubs


-Provide a new £10m per annum innovation fund to give delivery organisations, in particular the voluntary and community sector, a real chance to develop innovative solutions to help disadvantaged people especially young people who are NEET.

Matt Ellis, Director of Jobs.co.uk commented;

“We are pleased to see that the UK government has pledged to commit such a heavy level of investment to alleviate the ongoing issues regarding youth unemployment.”

Jobs.co.uk is an online UK jobs board which hosts 3rd party vacancies from a variety of employers and agencies including Graduate Jobs, plus 1,000’s of positions available in a wide variety of sectors including IT/Telecoms, Accountancy, FCMG, Health & Medical, Engineering/Manufacturing and many, many more.

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New Proposed Rights For Agency Workers

View the Article: http://www.jobs.co.uk/article/newproposedrightsforagencyworkers-41.htm

Jobs.co.uk reveals that the Agency Workers Directive (AWD) proposal was submitted by the UK government in May 2011 after consultations between unions, government and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). Designed to protect vulnerable agency workers, the AWD will give equal pay and employments rights to agency workers after 12 weeks of working for the same client.

The legislation comes into force 1^st October 2011 and the document is available to view here.  It is not retrospective and for those agency workers already on assignment, the 12 week qualifying period will start from the 1^st October 2011.  Part-time workers can accumulate the 12 week qualifying period even if they only work a few hours each week.

Agency Workers are already entitled to statutory protections including National Minimum Wage and working time regulations.

Proposed new rights for Agency Workers

From 1^st October 2011 workers from day 1 will have the following entitlements:

Access to collective facilities and amenities where available, including;

Canteen or similar facilities

Workplace crèche

Toilets/shower facilities

Staff common room or waiting area

Prayer room

Car parking facilities

Food and drinks machine

The list is non-exhaustive and acts as an indication of the types of facilities that may be available.

Access to information on Job Vacancies

From day 1 of an assignment all agency workers will have the right to know how and where to access relevant job vacancies.

More detailed information will be available at www.direct.gov.uk by the end of May 2011.

To read further news articles on your employee/agency worker rights visit:

Jobs.co.uk

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