Cash aid to create jobs; Young people targeted with new scheme.

Byline: Karen Dent

ALMOST 3,500 jobs, apprenticeships and work placements are set to be created in the North East as part of a pounds 40m Government injection to get young people off the dole.

The Backing Young Britain scheme, announced yesterday, is providing cash incentives for businesses, local authorities and charities to create apprenticeships, work placements or jobs.

The Government will pay pounds 6,500 to organisations for each young person they take on for six months.

The scheme is a central part of the effort to divert school and university leavers from signing on, after youth unemployment hit its highest level for 16 years.

Eleven North East councils, including Newcastle, Gateshead, Northumberland and Sunderland, have won money from the scheme's Future Jobs Fund to create 2,800 jobs for 18 to 21-year-olds. They aim to boost the number to 3,450 in the region when it goes live in October.

The councils are among 117 organisations nationally to be awarded money after pledging to create 47,000 jobs or placements.

Across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham, 1,643 jobs are to be created in the community and voluntary sector, 1,052 in the public sector and 755 in the private sector over the next 18 months.

The first phase will create 1,600 jobs over the first six months from October. Department for Work and Pensions Minister Helen Goodman was at Newcastle's West Gate Community College yesterday to unveil the initiative in the region.

She said: "The Government is investing around pounds 1bn in getting young people and the long term unemployed jobs, and opportunities to make the most of their talents and skills so they don't get thrown onto the scrap heap.

"Now we need businesses, charities and public sector bodies in the region to work with us to harness the talent of our young people, so that we can avoid losing a generation and build a stronger future for Britain."

The money will fund more than 20,000 internships for graduates and school leavers, a mentoring network, job clubs and one-to-one support.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said: "We have a choice in the face of the biggest financial crisis we have seen in many generations: we either let it take its course and do nothing, or we fight back against its impact on our economy and on young people. What we have chosen to do is to fight back.

"But the Government cannot do everything and we need the support of companies and communities to help us invest in the future." The Confederation of British Industry said young people were struggling to find work during the recession, but it was vital they gained skills to make them employable in the long term.

Its regional director, Sarah Green said: "It is important this initiative equips young people with the employability skills they will need to stay employed."

Ross Smith, head of policy and research at the North East Chamber of Commerce, said: "The immediate economic problems do create a risk that many skilled young people in the North East will struggle to find jobs as businesses are still finding recruitment difficult.

"But in the long term, North East businesses can't afford to lose this talent pool, so we welcome this initiative.

"It's now important that the best advice is provided to companies in the region on how they can get involved."

NEW JOBS

THE Future Jobs Fund will deliver 3,450 new jobs across the region. The total includes: 589 in Newcastle; 420 in North Tyneside; 341 in Sunderland; 215 in Gateshead and 219 in Northumberland. The new jobs will cover a range of sectors including health and social care and youth work.

HOW TO...

How businesses and charities can access the scheme: 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 19-24 year olds.

Join a Local Employment Partnership to make sure job vacancies are advertised to local unemployed people. In the North East, the Tyne and Wear City Region councils Hartlepool Borough Council, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, Middlesbrough Council and Redcar and Cleveland, have already won a share of the money through the Future Jobs Fund.

SCHEME SPECIFICS

ALL jobs created through the project must be additional jobs that demonstrate a benefit to the local community and would not exist without Future Jobs Fund funding.

They must last at least six months and be for at least 25 hours per week, and pay at least the national minimum wage.

And the posts must be suitable for long-term unemployed people between the ages of 18 and 24, or unemployed people of all ages in 'hotspot areas'.

They are defined as those places where the number of Job Seekers' Allowance claimants is 1.5% above the national average.

CAPTION(S):

NEW SCHEME Government minister Helen Goodman with Michael Simpson and Alan Heslop at Westgate Community College in Newcastle yesterday for the regional launch of the nationwide Backing Young Britain scheme, which aims to help young people in the downturn.