Youth jobs plan is 'insufficient'
20 September 2012
MPs: The government's youth contract is not enough to tackle the scale of youth unemployment.A group of MPs has said that the government's youth contract is not enough to tackle the scale of youth unemployment in the UK.
The Work and Pensions Select Committee commented that the contract was "a good start" but more would be needed to tackle the high level of youth unemployment.
The youth contract brings together £1bn of funding for a number of schemes, up until 2015, to help get young people into work.
Measures include providing 160,000 employers with a "wage incentive" of £2,275 to take on an unemployed 18-24 year-olds, 250,000 work experience placements and additional support from Jobcentre Plus.
The youth contract has the potential to create 430,000 work opportunities over the next three years.
The committee also praised the creation of a scheme targeted at 16 and 17 year-olds who are not in education, employment or training - the majority of whom do not receive support from Jobcentre Plus because they are not eligible to claim Jobseekers Allowance.
The committee said the government needed to widen its criteria for the scheme for 16 and 17 year-olds - which is currently only open to those with no GCSEs.
Buttle UK's Access to the Future Programme aims to help young people aged 18 - 25 years old who have not been in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) and have been for at least 6 months and who are not yet qualified to Level 2 standard (equivalent to 5 GCSE's at grade A-C standard).
Find out more about how our progarmme helps young people www.buttleuk.org/pages/grant-programmes-access-to-the-future-programme-47.html
