Scottish Government
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New action on jobs

Further 2,200 young people to be supported into employment.

A new employer recruitment incentive, backed by up to £10m funding from the Scottish Government, will aim to help over two thousand young people into work.

Scotland’s Employer Recruitment Incentive is more closely aligned to the improving economic conditions and jobs market and delivers key recommendations from Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce. The new programme replaces a previous scheme which created up to 10,000 job opportunities across Scotland’s 32 local authorities.

The new incentive offers employers around £4,000 to offset the additional costs of recruiting and employing a young person including equipment and staff time for training and induction.

Speaking on a visit to Re-Tek, a business specialising in the refurbishment and re-sale of IT equipment in East Kilbride, Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Skills and Training Roseanna Cunningham said:

“Recent monthly Labour Market Statistics are telling us that we are seeing improvements in the number of young people in employment. Only five European countries have lower youth unemployment rates than Scotland and last month’s Annual Population Survey showed the lowest ever numbers of 16 to 19 year olds not in education, employment or training.

“But we want to match the best in Europe and have committed to aim to reduce youth unemployment by 40 per cent by 2021. Scotland’s economic outlook is improving but we must remain focused on helping every young woman and man in Scotland fulfil their potential.

“This new initiative will specifically target young people who face the biggest barriers to employment and also responds to the demands of employers by delivering a consistent and simple recruitment incentive to ensure that employing a young person remains an attractive proposition.

“Alongside our local authorities and Skills Development Scotland, we are working hard to deliver our Youth Employment Strategy and its goal of a substantial long-term cut in youth unemployment that will contribute significantly to our continued economic growth.”

Councillor David O’Neill, COSLA President, said:

“In local government we recognise that young people have had a tough time over the last few years accessing employment. This has been especially true for more vulnerable young people who for a variety of reasons may struggle even at the best of times to find and hold down a job.”

“It is for this reason that local authorities worked extremely hard with local employers to ensure that the previous Youth Employment Scotland Fund created 10,000 jobs for young unemployed people. With this achieved I can say that local government is now just as committed to ensuring that the new incentive will create even more jobs for young people that need them.

“The aim of this effort is not just to help create many more personal success stories, but also, job by job, to ensure stronger local economies and communities. This is, after all, one of the core jobs of local government and a role that we take very seriously.”

Pamela Smith Depute Chair of the Scottish Local Authority Economic Development Group (SLAED) added:

“Local Authorities welcome the opportunity to work in partnership with Scottish Government as part of a co-investment approach to deliver the best possible outcomes for our young job seekers and local businesses. We are particularly supportive of the fact that these additional resources will be targeted at our more vulnerable job seekers to help move them into, quality sustainable employment.”

Damien Yeates, Chief Executive of Skills Development Scotland, said:

“Scotland’s Employer Recruitment Incentive will enable more companies to give young people the opportunity to enter the workplace and build the skills, knowledge and confidence that will benefit them throughout their career.”

Colin Borland, the FSB’s head of external affairs in Scotland and member of the Developing Young Workforce national group, said:

“By connecting Scotland’s enthusiastic but inexperienced young people with the country’s army of small firms, we can boost businesses and develop skills for life. These helpful incentives mitigate some costs associated with the very smallest businesses expanding their headcount.

“We’ve made the case to the Scottish Government and to local authorities about the need to simplify existing programmes. We welcome this new Employer Recruitment Incentive which should make it easier for small firms to access the help they need.”

 

Channel website: http://www.gov.scot/

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