Youth Unemployment and the Future Jobs Fund

Written evidence submitted by North Tyneside Council

Summary

1. In July 2009 North Tyneside Council as lead accountable body for the Tyne and Wear City Region Employment and Skills Partnership submitted a Future Jobs Fund (FJF) bid on behalf of the 7 Local Authorities in Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and Durham.

2. The partnership was successful in gaining an allocation of funding to create 3450 jobs between October 2009 and March 2011, 1650 in Phase One to March 2010 and 1840 in Phase Two between April 2010 and March 2011. 70% of all jobs created were to be targeted at young people, the remaining 30% were to be to people in unemployment hot spot areas.

3. The Tyne and Wear City Region programme centres around a commitment to provide a quality experience for young people and utilise a commissioned Post Employment Support (PES) service to provide additional support to FJF employees with their career progression and job sustainability. The service has provided mentoring / coaching, support and advice, training and job search to assist employees in finding permanent employment.

4. To date we have placed 2927 vacancies with Jobcentre Plus and filled 1664 of these jobs. In terms of opportunities for young people, we have advertised 69.5% of the vacancies specifically for young people

5. A recent review of the sustainability of jobs has provided evidence that 53% of leavers are progressing to jobs either with their FJF employer or alternative employers.

6. In response to the inquiry, we have outlined the following local evidence as a response to the highlighted areas of focus:

Performance

7. Across the Tyne and Wear City Region (TWCR), FJF has offered young unemployed people the chance of a real job, with a living wage (paid at least the national minimum wage). So far, the scheme has provided 1664 unemployed people with an opportunity to gain valuable experience and skills working in real jobs. These jobs have helped to ensure that the young people do not become disengaged and the experience has helped them to market themselves competitively for future employment opportunities .

8. The impact of the programme is demonstrable. Between July 2009 and July 2010, claimants aged between 18-24 years have seen their numbers decrease by 15.2% (2,565) across the TWCR, and 18-24 year olds as a proportion of all claimants have also reduced over the same period from 31.4% to 29.8%.

9. In addition, whilst across England the numbers of 18-24 year olds claiming over 6 months increased by 2.5% between July 2009 and July 2010, the numbers of 18-24 year olds claiming over 6 months in TWCR has actually decreased by 26.5% (865 claimants) over the same period. Although not wholly attributable, the success of the FJF programme will have contributed significantly to these figures.

10. The 7 Local Authorities have provided a key role in supporting local community and voluntary sector organisations to create suitable vacancies. Despite initial concerns, job creation has been relatively straightforward and this can be attributed to the capacity provided by the Local Authority officers to support and mentor the end employers, and the effectiveness of the partnership to work with the Public, Private and Voluntary and Community Sectors to provide opportunities for young people. Considering the short timescales for delivery the number of jobs created has been in excess of the original profile.

11. The ‘matching’ element and filling jobs has presented more of a challenge, particularly during Phase One. Initially, the programme experienced low referral rates of clients from Jobcentre Plus to the vacancies. These referrals did improve as delivery progressed and awareness of the programme was raised. However, conversion rates of Jobcentre Plus referrals into actual job applications remains a concern, with conversion rates as low as 20% in some cases. This has been tackled in a number of ways in partnership with Jobcentre Plus including the challenge of national guidance and reviewing local processes to ensure they work as effectively as possible. Phase 2 has seen further improvements in the processes to match individuals to jobs, in particular in the streamlining of recruitment practices, with new jobs being filled in shorter timescales.

Employer Feedback

12. Feedback from employers has been very positive with evidence that the programme is making a huge difference to both the employers and employees.

13. In August 2010, a survey was undertaken with 117 employers (response rate 54.2%) who have employed FJF employees as part of the programme. The results of the survey illustrated that the FJF has been a highly positive experience for the majority of employers taking part.

14. Employers reported a wide range of benefits to the infrastructure and sustainability of their organisations. Through the FJF, they have been able to become more responsive to customer needs, develop ICT provision, improve staff training and market their services to new funders and client groups. For some employers, the additional resources have enabled existing staff to take on more strategic work thus contributing to the longer-term sustainability and success of the organisation.

15. Many new and improved services have been enabled by FJF (69.4% of employers stated that had been able to improve existing services because of FJF), which have delivered an important benefit to the local community. A number of new services have related to environmental improvements and maintenance work whilst employers also cited improvements in customer service. Employers have also been able to use the FJF to undertake one-off projects such as tree planting, research and production of a directory (23.6% of employers reported being able to undertake additional one-off projects).

16. Employers also cited a range of community benefits that had been enabled by the FJF. In addition to greater employment opportunities, the FJF has boosted the confidence and self esteem for many of the individuals taking part. It has resourced services that support vulnerable and excluded groups in the local community and enabled improvements to the physical ‘fabric’ of the community to take place (42.6% of employers reported that benefits to the local community would be sustained beyond the end of the programme).

17. Many of the FJF workers have been able to use their experience as a ‘springboard’ into employment. The employers taking part in the survey collectively reported that 97 workers had already been offered further contracts of employment (58.2% of employers had offered FJF employees a further contract of employment). Many also intended to offer further contracts to those workers not yet at the end of their FJF-funded post. In addition, the FJF workers gained valuable experience and there are examples of workers being able to use these to gain employment elsewhere. The FJF has therefore provided a real opportunity for many long-term unemployed young people to obtain work (70.3% of employers reported that a lack of funds would be a key reason for not offering permanent contracts of employment).

18. In a broader sense, the FJF has also been highly successful in changing attitudes towards the long-term unemployed amongst those employers taking part (74% of employers stated that they were impressed with the quality of the people taking up FJF jobs and 50.6% reported that they were more inclined to recruit long-term unemployed people in the future). Employers praised highly the commitment, energy and abilities that the FJF workers brought to their organisations and reported that their attitudes towards recruiting and retaining long term unemployed people had changed significantly (34% reported that involvement in FJF had led to changes in the way their organisation will recruit people in the future).

19. Overall, these findings support the view that FJF has been a success. The employers have shared a number of ‘success stories’ that illustrate how the FJF has brought long-term unemployed people back into the workforce whilst simultaneously delivering a range of new and improved services for the local community and improving the infrastructure of many of the organisations taking part. Many of these benefits will be sustained in the future.

20. With significant impacts reported on the young persons motivation, self-esteem and general well being, the £6,500 per person it costs has been worthwhile. The programme has provided a realistic chance to support people to break out of the benefits dependency trap and to gain permanent and sustainable employment. The breadth and variation of the types of jobs provided through FJF, including jobs in health and social care, business and administration, ICT, contact centre skills, youth work, catering and hospitality, community development, sport and recreation and environmental activities and recycling has also allowed young people to explore fields of interest to them where entry level positions would not normally be created.

Jobcentre Plus Guidance

21. One of the key challenges faced in matching young people to opportunities has been the nationally directed Jobcentre Plus guidance that limited the widespread marketing of FJF opportunities. Local authority partners initially wished to include information, advice and guidance sessions for all benefit claimants interested in FJF jobs to ensure that the programme reached as many young people as possible. The intention was also to enable the additional matching of individuals to jobs.

22. The Partnership has worked hard to identify areas where flexibilities in the programme can be established to improve performance. An example is Local Authorities working with Jobcentre Plus advisers to identify a need for locally based matching events to engage young people and provide information, advice and guidance regarding opportunities available; addressing the limited scope to do this via standard interviews and signing processes in Jobcentre Plus offices.

23. Flexibility was granted in Gateshead to hold an event to stimulate and increase job starts. This proved very successful and is now being replicated on a monthly basis. The format has also been rolled out across the rest of the City Region. The relaxation of the national guidance has enabled this to become part of the matching process with Jobcentre Plus and provided a much smoother and immediate transition for the young person from referral to being placed into employment.

24. Moving into Phase Two of the programme, performance has improved significantly with a greater number of jobs being filled month on month. This is mainly due to processes now being embedded and Jobcentre Plus advisers having an improved awareness of the Future Jobs Fund and the benefits it presents to young people. Jobs are being filled faster and the potential of young people being offered permanent employment has improved, as demonstrated through the results of the Employer Survey.

Skills

25. The FJF programme has demonstrated that many organisations are willing to invest in training to provide their employees with the practical skills they require for the job.

26. The Post Employment Support (PES) provision, which is being delivered to support all FJF employees across the City Region, has assisted in providing the basic soft employability skills for young people. This makes it more likely that they will be retained, increasing the employer’s willingness to continue to employ them. The addition of this type of support has also ensured that the skills gained make the young person a more attractive prospect to other employers in the future, leading to career progression. The young people have gained new skills leading to renewed ambition for their future careers.

27. Whilst it is early days in identifying retention and the progression of individuals, there is evidence that the young people may not have remained in work for 6 months without this complimentary support to resolve issues and mentor individuals. This additional support whilst in work has supported the sustainability of a client group that is diverse and has a wide range of needs.

28. The target group for Future Jobs Fund have been unemployed for over 6 months and many have low skills and generally have been unable to compete in the jobs market. The programme has aimed to create entry-level jobs with a basic skills level and provided an environment for learning and development, supporting individuals to progress in the wider labour market. The chart below shows the breakdown of jobs by skill level.

29. From a sample of FJF employees, we found that 33% had less than an NVQ Level 2 qualification or no qualifications prior to starting their placement, 8% had an NVQ level 3 and only 0.8% held NVQ 4 or 5 or an A/AS level. This would indicate that we are pitching the jobs at the right level for the target audience and creating jobs for those young people who may not access opportunities without support.

30. Where jobs have not been filled or there has been a difficulty in identifying entry-level jobs, we have been proactive in reviewing job descriptions and skills levels. For example in Northumberland, vacancies were previously hard to find for young people with little or no experience. Very low numbers of vacancies were advertised with Jobcentre Plus. As a result the Local Authority have been proactive in working with the Third Sector to create as many jobs as possible requiring little or no skills, the result has been that many of the jobs have been created are within the cultural and tourist sectors which are growth sectors in Northumberland.

Below we have outlined the key strengths and weaknesses of the programme in the Tyne and Wear City Region:

Strengths

General points

31. Good approach in terms of encouraging City Region partnerships bidding to deliver outcomes in line with the needs of a functional economic geography, maximising the efficiency savings of a central team, whilst still embracing the devolvement to a local level.

32. The programme shows the value of devolving programmes to a local level. Local partnerships understand their local labour markets and employer base and have been committed to creating a range of job opportunities and providing ongoing support where required for both employees and employers.

33. It is essential to enable local provision of experienced employer contacts with existing employer relationships able to persuade them to create appropriate jobs and support employers throughout the programme.

34. Supporting local partnerships to provide joined up services and additional support e.g. in TWCR, the Post Employment Support (PES) contract added value to the programme by supporting the inclusion of accredited training and job search activity as well as providing an in work mentoring service. It is clear that retention levels would have much lower without offering this joined-up, wrap around support.

35. The Tyne and Wear City Region have commissioned independent evaluation of the FJF programme incorporating an employers and beneficiaries survey. The comments on how the programme has helped organisations develop and individual case studies collated demonstrate many of the positive impacts of the programme. A selection of these can be found in the appendices 1 & 2 of this report.

36. The criteria of more than 6 / 9 months unemployed is an advantage in that it ensures the FJF opportunities go to young people who would not have found work without FJF.

Range of opportunities

37. It has provided excellent, new and previously inaccessable opportunities for young people / NEET’s (Not in Employment, Education or Training).

38. FJF has created basic level jobs to match the skills level of many of the target group. These jobs would not have been available through normal channels and therefore has opened up opportunities for the most disadvantaged groups and has also provided a progression routeway.

39. The range of jobs created has been varied (from chocolatier to grave digger) allowing young people to widen their horizons and not ‘pigeon hole’ them into applying for traditional service sector jobs.

Format of Jobs

40. Setting the minimum payment level at the national minimum wage has encouraged young people to take this opportunity seriously and not consider this as a standard welfare to work programme.

41. Creating the jobs as real jobs where the employees are treated equally alongside substantive posts has resulted in a respect for the post and the post holder in a way that previous "trainee" or supported job creation programmes have not.

42. The programme has created jobs that would not have been available in the wider labour market, and provided a wide range of opportunities that individuals may not have thought of.

43. The simplicity of job creation ensured there was sufficient scope to create diverse, quality jobs whilst also managing eligibility criteria such as community benefit.

44. FJF opportunities are bona fide jobs, albeit with an initial time limit, and not just a ‘scheme’ or ‘programme’. This has the dual benefit of the employer having real ownership over the job and the employee being more motivated and having a genuine experience of a job in a real workplace. Experience and evidence shows that this has a more profound impact on raising employability.

Community benefit

45. Providing jobs that are of a benefit to the local community has ensured that the jobs are appreciated by local people from the communities the FJF employees reside in. It has also opened up new and additional opportunities in the community and voluntary sector that has increased the awareness of this sector

46. There have been a wide range of community benefits in terms of infrastructure and the sustainability of organisations. Examples include the employers becoming more responsive to customer needs; developing ICT provision; transporting the elderly; improving staff training; play schemes; marketing services to new client groups; community sports and healthy living information / activities; improving the physical environment with gardening and low cost maintenance and repairs services; and resourcing services that support vulnerable and excluded groups.

Employers response

47. Unlike work experience that employers don’t particularly rate, it gives ‘real’ job duties and responsibilities that are of benefit to the business. It also provides a higher quality experience to the individual to be included on a CV, which impresses employers and gives some advantage when applying for future jobs.

48. An independent employer survey has shown that the programme has been highly successful in changing employers attitudes towards long term unemployed (50% said that FJF had challenged their expectations of the contribution that long term unemployed people can make to their workforce, 51% said that they would be more inclined to recruit from this group and 74% stated that they were impressed with the quality of the people taking up FJF jobs).

49. FJF has increased the awareness and the previously negative perceptions of the service that Jobcentre Plus can provide. Employers engaged via Future Jobs Fund in Gateshead, particularly within the third sector and SME’s, reported that they did not traditionally recruit successfully via Jobcentre Plus customer groups. Future Jobs Fund has presented the opportunity to increase awareness of the benefits of recruiting from this group providing matching is appropriate and co-ordinated. Appendix 3 provides some employer comments that demonstrate the changing perceptions from involvement in the FJF programme.

Additional benefits

50. Third sector organisations have been able to develop the capacity to actually employ someone else. Recent evaluation has shown that many organisations have increased productivity, successfully bid for further funding to support the organisation and sustain their employee’s job.

51. The impact on service development and business growth for participating employers has been demonstrated through developing new or extending services, improving services and bidding for new work. Further examples of additional capacity in the third sector include an increased number of crèche places, IT training courses and community gardening contracts.

52. The young people have proven themselves throughout the six months and been able to apply for permanent jobs within the organisation they have been placed. For example, the Home Group has a 70% success rate of retaining employees beyond the FJF opportunity. While conceived as a short- term measure the FJF legacy will be longer term and impact on a number of young people and employers.

Weaknesses

General points

53. Some conflicting elements exist within the programme around additionality and sustainability – additional jobs are treated as a stepping stone towards permanent jobs however the fact that they are additional increases the chance that they do not continue when the funding ends. This will result in temporarily removing young people from the claimant count only to see them return, more demoralised than previously.

54. The programme has been criticised as a short-term reaction to the recession, when although the recession has intensified the impact, youth unemployment is not purely a recession induced problem and the supply side issues with NEET’s need to be tackled alongside a demand side intervention like FJF on a long-term basis.

Community benefit

55. In order to provide community benefit, most of the jobs are in the public sector and with a range of voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations. However, it is acknowledged that there will be constraints in the third sector as well as cuts to be made to public services in the next year. There is a danger of setting people up to fail if the long-term opportunities are not available.

Private sector involvement

56. The lack of opportunity to create jobs in the private sector where sustainability is more likely is thought of as a key omission to FJF. The programme could have been used as a catalyst for creating more private sector jobs and therefore supporting the aim to rebalance the local economy reduce the reliance on the public sector. Extending to SMEs, or even only small employers, in the private sector could have helped stimulate demand for jobs. This would have a genuine community benefit by boosting the business base in some very deprived communities.

57. It is agreed that local partnerships could have addressed the ‘State Aid’ and market displacement issues that were a constraint in enabling private sector involvement.

58. The Tyne and Wear Employment and Skills Board private sector members who manage some sustainable businesses expressed their dismay that they could not be an integral part of this programme.

Implementation

59. Unlike many DWP programmes, this scheme was not piloted and therefore it hasn’t really been given the opportunity to prove how successful it can be. Administration and delayed guidance led to some teething problems and it is only recently that the programme’s processes have become smoother and more interest has been gained from potential employers and young people.

60. There has been a lack of flexibility in processes regarding recruitment – i.e. no self-referral or widespread advertising of vacancies, therefore resulting in the reliance on Jobcentre Plus to fill vacancies. This lack of flexibility in the programme hindered appropriate local partnership working to match young people to jobs, impacting upon the submission and conversion rate. As Future Jobs Fund was only one part of the Young Person’s Guarantee there was little direct matching undertaken by local Jobcentre Plus advisers who had knowledge and understanding of their customer needs.

61. Varied approaches by Jobcentre Plus nationally affected providers delivering across several regions. Centralised, district based matching and co-ordination, although promoting a cross boundary approach, did not reflect the geographical reality of travel to work areas and partnership infrastructures already in place.

62. The lack of true local flexibility to deliver a programme to fit local need e.g. no localisation due to national guidance. It is considered that given the strong, local partnership in place in the Tyne and Wear City Region we collectively could have implemented the programme quicker and more efficiently in the early stages if we had been empowered to do so.

63. There was also a lack of immediate guidance - late guidance was provided that contradicted processes already put in place by strong effective partnerships. An alternative approach of empowerment to deliver what works would have supported increased early performance.

64. Constant changing of guidance – again the programme could have been more effective by empowering localities to deliver within their own collectively agreed processes and rules, particularly where partnerships had previously demonstrated comprehensive and effective local approaches e.g. through DWP City Strategy Pathfinders or strong employment led MAA’s.

65. There was a lack of promotion of opportunities to customers due to hierarchy of options within Young Person’s Guarantee.

66. It is too early to say one way or another about the long term success of the programme but given time and further development, the opportunities given to young people may provide reductions to the long term unemployment rate that would have balanced (if not outweighed) any cost in the present. In addition, it has provided a solution to high numbers of young people being caught in the position of being long term unemployed potentially remaining on benefits for long periods of time with the resultant personal demotivation and mental health issues related to long term unemployment.

67. Our independent employers survey asked employers to consider what the main impacts will be when the FJF programme finishes, their responses are as follows:

Less jobs/opportunities for young people (78.9%)

More unemployed young people (73.7%)

More long-term unemployment (64.2%)

Loss of community benefit (57.9%)

Reduction in available resources for business growth (48.4%)

Reduction in business growth (29.5%)

No impact (1.1%)

68. We understand that in place of the Future Jobs Fund, there is a plan to create apprenticeships for young people, although the numbers will be much less than the FJF opportunities created. One of the key differences between the Future Jobs Fund and apprenticeships is that apprentices will be paid much less (£55 per week).

69. The loss of financial support for the employer will have an impact, consequently some form of wage subsidy or national insurance exemption would encourage employers to sustain these jobs or create new ones.

70. The decision to end FJF may have a serious impact on reducing the opportunities for young people. FJF has helped young people to stay in touch with the labour market at a time of recession and high youth unemployment. Skills, the work ethic, workplace experience etc. have all been retained. As young people are more vulnerable to unemployment and more likely to be ‘scarred’ by periods out of work, it is important to have similar future options for young people particularly when there is slow labour market progression and job instability.

71. If the Future Jobs Fund programme had been able to run until March 2012, it could have complemented the Work Programme activity by creating jobs and progression routes for individuals thus increasing it’s sustainability as an outcome funded programme. There would also have been more time to gather the evidence base to prove the success of the programme and therefore build a concrete case for incorporating FJF type delivery into the Work Programme. At present, it is unlikely that this type of delivery will be included.

72. In the transition from FJF to the Work Programme, consideration needs to be given to local economies e.g. vulnerable economies, reliance on public sector, private sector jobs gaps and the longer term absence of appropriate ‘starter’ jobs in the DWP ITT’s. ITT’s should specify that prime contractors should report performance and engage in Local Enterprise Partnerships to ensure there is local support and challenge for the Work Programme delivery

73. There is real concern that the Work Programme will not provide an effective transition if job creation and brokerage are not an integral part of the responses to the ITT’s. There is also a real risk that with the black box approach anticipated in the Work Programme, the specific needs of young people will not be taken account of. The recession is causing the labour market to become more competitive; therefore young people become less attractive than more experienced candidates. Qualified people end up under employed (lowering their job and wage expectations) and thus making the most basic level jobs harder to get.

74. There is also the danger of young people being excluded as not eligible under Work Programme criteria as they will be new claimants when they leave an FJF opportunity.

75. Tyne and Wear City Region are providing a City Region Prospectus for the Work Programme for Prime Contractors. The prospectus will include; what the partnership can offer in terms of the local infrastructure, existing initiatives and strategic framework; the context, key features of our economy, trends and Labour Market Information; the challenges and opportunities for our area; and set out expectations of the partnership.

76. As our initial findings on the Future Jobs Fund Programme support the view that it has been a successful programme, within this prospectus, we will include a request for a FJF type intervention to be included in the Work Programme. We will encourage prime contractors to discuss with us the differing needs of young people in our locality. This is the type of response that many local partnerships will be supporting and therefore communication and empowerment that working with and to Local enterprise partnerships or employment and skills local governance arrangements will be critical to success.

Summary

The Tyne and Wear City Region partners have welcomed the opportunity to deliver the FJF programme and are committed to providing high quality similar type services in the future that supports young people into sustainable work.

The partnership welcome the opportunity to provide the above evidence for the select committee and if further information is required the contact officer is Shona Duncan who can be contacted on 0191 643 6065 or shona.duncan@northtyneside.gov.uk .

Appendix 1

Employer quotes regarding developing, extending and improving services

"The FJF has allowed us to expand our services into 3 new sites, which will give us a good starting point when applying for funding to maintain the services as they will have a track record of 6 months. This has also allowed us to branch into developing training and IAG with the under 25s."

"Having extra staff that cost us nothing makes a huge difference to delivery of service and allows us to be more creative with our play opportunities - ultimately offering better playcare experience for the children in our care. "Now that we have two Charity Shop workers we have extended the Charity Shop to a market stall once a week as well as being able to have the shop open."

"FJF has enabled managers to develop staff by assigning them to mentor an FJF employee. This has given staff development experience including; being involved in interview, supervision and one to one's and general staff management. FJF has also given a very positive impression of young people as [it] dispelled myths that young people do not want to work."

"Our service had limited capacity - but we are now able to offer it across the region without a waiting list."

"The service that we offered was a loss making venture, we needed it to break even this financial year otherwise we would have to stop the service - and make a number of people redundant. The FJF has allowed us to work on more older people's gardens faster, and with less cost."

"By having more staff members, it has allowed our service to grow and improved the skill sets of both the senior gardeners and the garden assistants. This has had a knock on affect to the customers themselves - who get a less expensive, higher quality service."

"Created a role which involves communicating directly with customers on issues to do with the delivery of their specs. This has assisted other departments in turn, to allow more one to one time with customers in store, and improve the service we offer to the community."

Appendix 2

Case Studies demonstrating benefits to individuals & organisations

"Our first FJF employee moved into a full time role with us only 5 weeks after starting. He had never had an interview before in his life, having worked and trained as a bricklayer with his Grandfather. Although his current role is in maintenance, he has been identified through our succession planning as a replacement for a bricklayer due to retire very soon. When that occurs, his salary will be almost double what he first started earning. He is looking to move out of his parent’s house into a house of his own with his partner who has just given birth to their baby daughter. Without Future Jobs Fund the whole family would be living in an overcrowded property, relying solely on benefits."

"One young man has transformed from an insecure, shy individual to a competent, friendly, highly thought of important member of the lab team in the 6 months he has been with us."

"...Working in the cafe has allowed [her] to develop new skills, and gain qualifications. [She] has passed 3 external qualifications. She is able to run the kitchen and the sandwich areas well. She can prepare coffee using a barista machine. In addition she can use an EPOS till. All these skills her help move forward into another job."

"One of our trainees came with no experience at all and had a difficult few weeks settling in. He has matured drastically during his time here, no longer scruffy and in trainers, he is smart. No longer shy with clients, he finds a common bond with everyone. He still makes mistakes, but he no longer reacts badly to being told how to rectify them, but takes the experience and learns. He is a fine example of what the programme wanted to achieve."

Appendix 3

Employer quotes regarding the change of perception in employing young unemployed individuals

"Before the success of our FJF employees, we may have assumed that people were out of work long term for a reason. Either because they didn't want to work, or because they were not great employees."

"Any preconceptions we had regarding long term unemployed people have been removed by the hard working and friendly colleagues we have seen through future jobs."

"It has shown that there is a good pool of employable people in the unemployed numbers."

"I have a better understanding of how to develop and progress young people within the workforce. Providing an opportunity has enabled the trainees to develop skills that they did not have previously which has been extremely rewarding for line managers and mentors."

"Everyone in the business sees long term unemployed in a different light. We believe that given the chance they are able to develop their skills fairly quickly and offer a lot to an organisation."

"I initially expected the Future Jobs Fund people to work in these posts because their benefits would be affected if they did not take up an offer. This has been proven wrong, the contribution and commitment of the people we have been able to place is amazing and has changed my outlook on the long term unemployed."

"The programme has demonstrated how effective the partnership between local companies and unemployed people can be. We have secured an excellent candidate with appropriate skills who will hopefully stay with the company for a long time to come

10 September 2010