Future Jobs Fund - lets show our support

Call for Evidence: Youth Unemployment and the Future Jobs Fund

The Work and Pensions Committee is holding a short enquiry into Youth Unemployment and the Future Jobs Fund (FJF) and is calling for written evidence from interested organisations on the extent to which the FJF has succeeded in matching new work experience opportunities to young unemployed people, the strengths and weaknesses of the FJF programme, the likely impact of the decision to end the FJF in March 2011 rather than March 2012 and how the transition from FJF to the Work Programme will be managed, including the part to be played by the Government’s proposal to fund new apprenticeships.

Any written evidence should be submitted before the 10th September 2010 as an MS Word document, of no more than eight pages (including an executive summary). Evidence should be emailed to workpencom@parliament.uk

Hastings Trust has participated in the Future Jobs Fund programme and has been lucky enough to employ ten FJF young people across various projects - our experience has been a really positive one and we hope it has been so for the young people involved. Despite being sceptical about the scheme at the start, we were keen to provide these opportunities for young people and haven't been disappointed. To be able to provide real paid work experience for our young people has been a privilege and we truly hope that it will help them to secure permanent work in the near future.

I am personally disappointed that one of the most promising welfare to work scheme is not being given the opportunity to demonstrate its value by the new coalition government and would encourage participants, both employers and employees, to contribute their experiences to this enquiry.