Cabinet Office
Printable version E-mail this to a friend

Deputy Prime Minister announces multimillion pound boost for youth jobs

Major cities in England will receive government cash to invest over the next 3 years to help young people into lasting employment.

The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Cities Minister Greg Clark will today (14 November 2013) announce investment from a pot of government cash given to England’s major cities to invest over the next 3 years, with the aim of helping more than 25,000 young people into jobs that last.

Youth unemployment is one of the most pressing issues for the coalition to tackle. This money will go straight to people who know their city or region best, giving people locally the ability to invest in young people and the future prosperity of the city.

England’s 8 core cities and 20 wave two cities were invited to submit proposals earlier this year for a share of up to £50 million. The people behind the proposal had to prove they will be able to deliver innovative schemes explicitly designed to tackle the problem of youth unemployment.

The cash will be used to help young unemployed people from the local area in ways that suit the needs of local employers. This can include addressing skills gaps, improving training, offering more support and working with local employers to offer more jobs and apprenticeships.

The announcement comes as the Deputy Prime Minister meets young apprentices from across the country at the Skills Show and the National Apprenticeship Awards in Birmingham, which recognise and celebrate the very best of young British talent, and the employers going that extra mile to help our apprentices to progress.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said.

Helping young people succeed is crucial to our economic recovery. That is why I am pleased to announce this cash for cities to invest in getting more young people into jobs.

This is a multi-million pound cash boost for the future prosperity of our young workforce and, making our society fairer so that everyone has the chance to get on in life.

Investment like this, paired with a determination to tackle youth unemployment by our great cities, has the genuine power to change the fortunes of young people across the region, whether it’s with extra training, improving education or apprenticeships.

Minister for Cities Greg Clark said:

The days of Whitehall holding all the purse strings are coming to an end. Handing power over how cities spend money is important – this way, local leaders can do what’s best for the young people in their area. They know what will work and can make a real difference to their economic future by shaping the workforce of tomorrow.

The government is committed to making long-term investments in young people’s futures through work experience and apprenticeships. It places cities at the centre of the design and delivery of new schemes to complement the government’s existing investment to tackle youth unemployment.

Notes to editors

There are more people in work today than ever before. Since 2010 the government has helped to create over 1.4 million jobs in the private sector and over 1 million apprenticeships have started since the election.

Since April 2012, over 136,000 young people have started a work experience placement through the Youth Contract.

On 30 July the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Minister for Cities Greg Clark launched a competition for cities to design trailblazing initiatives to boost youth employment using £50m of funding from the Youth Contract scheme.

Details of funds and initiatives

  • £5.9 million in Liverpool City Region to invest in a new Payment by Results scheme targeted at helping the most disadvantaged young people into work, alongside a Local Enterprise Partnership-led employer engagement campaign and a personalised budget approach to empower 18-24 year olds to take greater responsibility and ownership on their route back to work
  • £5.8 million in Greater Manchester to empower and equip 18 to 24 year olds to take greater responsibility and ownership in their journey to work via a personalised budget approach, a local transport guarantee to enable young people to overcome local travel to work barriers, and a local employer-led jobs campaign to co-ordinate local and national schemes and increase take up of Apprenticeships and the Youth Contract Wage Incentive
  • £5 million in Sheffield City Region to offer intensive advisor and mentor-led support for young people, alongside a bespoke, employer-led training programme aimed at equipping young people with the right skills for local jobs
  • £4.6 million in Leeds City Region to provide intensive, targeted wraparound support for at risk and long-term unemployed young people, an innovative pilot looking at the role that Employment Agencies can play in helping young people into work and the creation of a new Young Ambassador Scheme to offer peer mentoring, support and advice to young people
  • £4.5 million in the North East to drive a new local business-led jobs campaign to drive up employment opportunities for young people using business advisors to unlock these opportunities. In addition they will also more intensive employment advisors and peer mentors to equip young people for the newly levered opportunities
  • £4 million in Greater Birmingham and Solihull. This will be used to help young unemployed people from the local area so that they can benefit from job growth in the area. Part of this will include investing in new jobs associated with Jaguar Land Rover’s continued expansion. To help prepare young people for their new career, the area will create a new Apprenticeship Training Agency for the Advanced Manufacturing Sector. The cash will also see an expansion of an intensive local jobs campaign and Multi-Agency partnership to increase opportunities for young people. Crucially, the funding will help to target youth unemployment “hotspots” and offer intensive personalised support and mentoring to enable these young people to start an apprenticeship or get back to work.
  • £3 million in Nottingham to further extend the reach and impact of the Joint Integrated Employer and Apprenticeship Hub building on the success of the City Deal and targeted community-led interventions via additional support for young people to undertake employer-led training
  • £1.4 million in the west of England to deliver a new work experience and work placement scheme alongside more bespoke employer engagement linked to future growth sectors in the local economy

Free, Secure, Compliant UK Public Sector IT Recycling Service