Businesses urged to join bid for Kickstart paid work placements for young people

Orkney businesses of all sizes are being urged to come forward with potential work placements for local young people, to help the county secure thirty government funded positions for workers aged 16-24.

Working in partnership, the Orkney Economic Recovery Steering Group, Orkney Construction Training Group and Orkney Islands Council plan to submit a joint bid to the UK Government’s ‘Kickstart’ scheme and, if successful, act as a ‘gateway’ for the initiative for local business and organisations across all sectors and industries in Orkney

The UK government Kickstart scheme is a £2 billion fund aimed at creating hundreds of thousands of high-quality work placements for young people aged 16 to 24 who are on Universal Credit and are deemed to be at risk of long-term unemployment. It covers 100% of the National Minimum Wage (or National Living Wage depending on the age of the participant) for 25 hours per week for a total of six months, as well as associated employer National Insurance contributions and employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions.

Employers will also receive £1.5k for every person they employ through Kickstart. There are no conditions on the use of this money, however it should be used to support initial set up of the placement such as purchasing new equipment, relevant training or one to one employability support for the young person.

All jobs created for the Kickstart Scheme must be new jobs. They must not replace existing vacancies or lead to a reduction in hours for existing employees. All job placements must start prior to 31 December 2021.

In Orkney, the Council’s Community Learning and Development team would provide support for employees through their employability team. There would be additional support for people with learning disabilities through the Council’s Learning Disability team.

Orkney Construction Training Group would provide the administrative support for the scheme including paying both the young person’s wages and the £1.5k grant to employers.

Kerry Spence is Community Learning and Development Manager with a remit for employability support in the county: “Long term unemployment among young people is on the rise both nationally and in Orkney and has a huge impact on their confidence and their future prospects. It’s something as a community we must tackle head on in the wake of the pandemic.

“The UK Government’s Kickstart scheme is a fantastic opportunity for Orkney’s young people and for local employers. The scheme is looking for bids made up of 30 or more job placements – obviously in Orkney we’re best joining forces as employers big and small to achieve this number of placements. Bids also need to show they have plans in place to support young people in their placements.

“We’re confident this partnership can offer all those assurances to the government and to employers, so what we really need now is for local businesses to get in touch if they would be interested in these funded placements.”

Glen McLellan is chair of the Orkney Economic Recovery Steering Group, which comprises local business people, local councillors, and Council and Highlands and Islands Enterprise officials formed to facilitate a rapid and effective response to economic challenges posed by the pandemic.

“Early on in the pandemic the ERSG developed a vision called ASPIRE which builds on the premise that to recover from the pandemic, and build a better future, Orkney must aspire to be Ambitious, Sustainable, Prosperous, Inclusive, Resilient and Enterprising. In order to do that, we need to work together to create a different kind of economic future which benefits the whole community.

“This vision was drawn up with the input of local businesses. We are now calling on them to help us, under the ASPIRE banner, to make sure our young people are included in that vision.

“The Kickstart scheme offers us the potential to give local young people the boost and support they need in this pandemic, while giving financial and training support to employers to step up their own response and recruit staff.

“But to give us the best chance of a successful bid we need to provide evidence of demand from Orkney organisations and businesses. We’ve launched an online Expression of Interest process and we’d urge local businesses to complete that as soon as possible to let us know any potential placements they can offer.”

The partnership will be emailing local businesses over coming days encouraging them to complete the survey. Anyone interested in finding out more can also contact Kerry Spence at Orkney Islands Council on 01856 87 35 35 (ext 2408) or email the dedicated inbox.

There will also be a leaflet in next week’s (21 January) 'The Orcadian' newspaper.

Further information - including the online Expression of Interest survey - are available on the Orkney Islands Council website or on the Aspire website.

Employers should note there is no guarantee that the Orkney partnership will be accepted as a Gateway Organisation. Also, decisions about individual Kickstart placements are made by the UK Government Department of Work and Pensions.

You can read more about the UK Government's Kickstart scheme by visiting the gov.uk website