Watford employers encouraged to ‘Back Young Britain’ (From Watford Observer)

Watford employers encouraged to ‘Back Young Britain’

11:38am Thursday 18th February 2010 in

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Welfare to work provider Reed in Partnership is calling on organisations in Watford to sign up to the Government’s Backing Young Britain campaign, which is being launched to offer internships and work experience placements to 18-24 year olds in the area.

The Backing Young Britain initiative brings businesses; public and voluntary organisations together to ensure the valuable skills of young people are not wasted, but are developed to their full potential.

Businesses and organisations that sign-up to the scheme will benefit from a cost effective staffing service that will not only source potential candidates, but also pre-vet them to ensure they are suitable for the internships and work placements on offer.

Reed in Partnership has been tasked with running a core component of the Backing Young Britain programme by delivering services for the Non Graduate Internship and Work Experience element of the scheme, which will involve placing 20,000 young people across the UK in internships lasting between eight and 13 weeks, and 5,000 more in two week work experience placements.

The programme runs until June 2011 and forms part of the Governments programme to create job, training and work experience opportunities for 17-24 year olds across the UK.

As part of Backing Young Britain the Government has guaranteed every young person who is unemployed for six months the offer of a job, training or work experience, supported by up to 470,000 opportunities over the next 17 months.

Minister for Employment Jim Knight said: ''We are determined to do everything we can to support Britain's young people which is why we launched the Backing Young Britain campaign.

” The campaign encourages employers to take advantage of the talent Britain's young people have, use free Government funding to support and train them, and use this opportunity to invest in the future of their business while Backing Young Britain's.

”If every one of the two million businesses across the UK could 'Back Young Britain' by offering an internship or work placement opportunity, then we could make a real difference and help young people get that all important first foot on the career ladder.''

Chris Melvin, Chief Executive of Reed in Partnership, said: “The Backing Young Britain programme is a great opportunity for employers large and small, not only will they have access to a large pool of talent at minimal extra investment, they will also be playing an important role in helping the nation’s youth to build the skills they need to become active members of the labour market. “

For more information and advice about how to Back Young Britain businesses can visit www.hmg.gov.uk/backingyoungbritain or to register to offer an internship www.backingyoungbritain.co.uk .