Help Kickstart a young persons career with a work placement opportunity.
As an employer considering taking on a apprentice you have an option to test the water first with the Government Kickstart scheme which was announced by the government in July of this year and kickstarted on 2nd September.
The scheme has been introduced to help young people between 16-24 in to work that are currently on universal credit, all be it each placement will last for only six months. However for employers using the kickstart scheme enables them to identify potential future employees from the cohort to advance them to either a full-time job or enrol them onto an apprenticeship job with the employer.
The kickstart scheme is a low risk option for employers as it is funded by the government due to a £2billion fund that has been set up. The government will pay the kickstarters (young employee) salary at a minimum wage and for up to 25 hours per week in addition to NI and pension contributions, anything above this criteria will have to be funded by the employer. As an employer you will also receive a £1,500 incentive to help towards training requirements and any other additional costs.
So far the Kickstart scheme has hugely successful in fact it has already created over 19,000 jobs for young people and has been over subscribed by employers totalling more than 4,000 applications from employers across England, Scotland and Wales.
As you will agree the Kickstart scheme has already been a great success and looks like it will grow even bigger going into 2021.
To qualify as an employer the government has put together a guidance programme for you to check your eligibility to be able to receive the funding. One key criteria as an employer is you would only be eligible if you are looking to create at least 30 jobs through the kickstart scheme. Alternatively if you are unable to create this value of jobs you can use a Kickstart gateway such as your local authority, charity or a trade body to facilitate your kickstarters.
The Kickstart scheme runs until the end of December 2021, for now - who knows the government may decide to extend the scheme, and all your kickstarters have to have started in their work placement before the end of December 2021 for you to qualify for the funding.
Whats great about the Kickstart Scheme is that it is available across many industry sectors giving young people a opportunity to work in many different types of industry sectors which include Construction, Communications, IT or Media.
For more information and to find guidance as an employer about how you can help kickstart someones career please visit the government website. Kickstart Scheme.