Employment Schemes: Young People
Work and Pensions
Bob Ainsworth (Coventry North East, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent steps his Department has taken to assist 16 to 24-year-olds in Coventry to secure employment.
Mark Hoban (Fareham, Conservative)
The Youth Contract, introduced in April 2012, will provide nearly half-a-million new opportunities to young unemployed people over the next three years. For 18 to 24-year-olds, it will provide wage incentives and additional work experience places. For 16 to 24-year-olds, it will provide additional Apprenticeship Grants for Employers.
In addition, £126 million has been made available to the Department for Education through the Youth Contract to support some of the most disengaged 16 and 17-year-olds in England who are not in education, employment and training into sustained learning, an apprenticeship or job with training.
The Youth Contract builds on existing support available through Jobcentre Plus and the Work programme, enabling young unemployed people to look for work, gain work experience and skills, and find real, lasting jobs.