Information for young people – What is the Kickstart Scheme?
Are you 16 to 24? On Universal Credit?
Are you looking for a great opportunity to get you on the career ladder in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. The Kickstart scheme is a £2billion scheme to fund quality, 6-month local work placements to give you a stepping stone into more permanent employment.
Watch: What young people think about Kickstart
Watch: What employers think about Kickstart
What type of placements are there?
Work placements will be available with a wide range of local businesses and organisations across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
What about the future? You may want to think about applying for placements in sectors that have a current skills shortage or have the potential to really grow in the future, such as construction, green energy, digital and IT, health and care, advanced manufacturing and engineering, logistics, management, financial and professional services, agriculture, etc. This means that you could be even more employable to local organisations and businesses in the future.
What do the placements offer?
All of the workplaces offering placements are committed to giving you a quality experience to give you the confidence, support, skills and training you need to go on in your career and be brilliant. All placements will provide:
- at least 25 hours of paid-work a week
- support throughout the placement to get the skills, experience and work-experience you need to go onto longer-term employment
- Training – each employer has up to £1,500 to spend on your training
and you won’t need to do a lot of training before you start your placement.
How to get a placement
Jobs from the Kickstart Scheme are open to people aged 16-24 years old, who are claiming Universal Credit, and are at risk of long term unemployment.
Your JobCentre Work Coach can tell you more about the new Kickstart Scheme and the jobs that are available.
The first jobs should be available from November 2020, but the scheme keeps going until December 2021, so there’s always new job placements coming onboard.
Keep an eye on the Jobhelp website to be the first to see Kickstart work-placements