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29/01/2010
Groundwork will be managing a scheme to help local young people facing multiple barriers to employment back into work.
Groundwork – one of the country’s leading providers of environmentally focused employment programmes - has won the contract to manage the Government’s Community Task Force (CTF) employment scheme in South West Wales and South Wales Valleys.
The appointment will see young people from the area who have been unemployed for over six months gain work experience and receive the support needed to find jobs.
Funded as part of the Department for Work & Pensions ‘Young Person’s Guarantee’, Groundwork’s CTF scheme will work with over 3,000 people aged 18 – 24 during the next 14 months who face the greatest barriers to employment.
Referred to the scheme by their Jobcentre Plus advisers, customers will join a 13-week work placement. Participants will receive 1:1 mentoring and job search support. Each work placement will be organised to allow the young people to work on programmes that provide benefits to their community - typically including roles such as land management workers, gardeners and recycling workers.
Groundwork chief executive, Tony Hawkhead, said:
"Groundwork has a long track record of breaking the vicious ‘no experience = no work’ cycle. We have decades of expertise in building local partnerships to get young people into local jobs.
"Many young people are facing a very tough time as a result of the economic downturn, and those with multiple barriers to employment faced the prospect of becoming another lost generation. Now, thanks to Community Task Force funding, those taking part will be able to access the tailored support they need to overcome deeply entrenched obstacles on their journey into employment.
"We will bring our expertise to bear over the coming months across South Wales and South Wales Valleys to give thousands of young people the chance to boost their confidence and use their new skills and abilities in jobs that will provide local environmental, economic and social benefits to their communities for decades to come."
Groundwork has been managing employment projects since the early 1980s and has experience of helping the hardest to reach young people into jobs - and will be building on its role in managing existing employment programmes, such as the Future Jobs Fund scheme.
Kris Hames, 21 from Aberdare, South Wales, recently started a six-month placement on a Groundwork-led Future Jobs Fund project:
"I had been working at a mechanics as an apprentice for about 18 months but got laid off because business was slowing down. It was horrible when I had to sign on at the job centre but I really wanted to work.
"I was told that there was a job at Groundwork and I have been working on their Green Team, which is an environmental maintenance work placement project for young people. I’ve never done anything like this before and can’t believe how much I’m enjoying it."
Daisy Powell, PR & Public Affairs Manager, T: 0121 237 5816/07966 726308 E: daisy.powell@groundwork.org.uk
Fiona Taylor, Head of Policy & Communications, T: 0121 237 5815/07711 855785 E: fiona.taylor@groundwork.org.uk
