Government to pay firms and charities to get jobless teenagers back on track
THE GOVERNMENT is to pay companies and charities to improve prospects for young unemployed people, deputy PM Nick Clegg will announce today.
Firms will be able to bid for contracts worth up to £2,200 for every young person that they provide with skills for the jobs market.
The £126m of state funds will be targeted at 55,000 specific “Neets” – 16 and 17 year olds not in education, employment or training.
The “high risk” group consists of teenagers with no GCSEs at grade C or above. Firms will be paid extra funds if the youths subsequently stick with training programmes or hold down jobs. “Sitting at home with nothing to do when you’re so young can knock the stuffing out of you for years,” Clegg will state today.
“It is a tragedy for the young people involved – a ticking time bomb for the economy and our society as a whole.”
Getting inactive teenagers back onto their feet is a task the government “cannot do alone” Clegg argues.
“That’s why today I am calling on charities and other organisations at the coal face to work with government to help tens and thousands of lost teenagers onto a brighter path,” he will say.
Over one million young people are unemployed in the UK according to official statistics, although students seeking work are included in the figures.