Minutes:
Stella Marshall, Youth Support Programme Development Officer and Lesley Holland, Operations Manager, Bromley Education Business Partnership gave an update on the Bromley Youth Employment Project (Round 2) which had been developed by the Local Authority to support sustainable employment opportunities for young people who were unemployed.
The project aimed to:
1. Target priority client groups, including young people identified as at risk of being ‘Not in Employment, Education or Training’ (NEET), young people aged 18-24 years claiming Jobseekers Allowance and Looked After Children aged 15-24 years.
2. Increase the supply of local employment opportunities for young people by implementing a Borough-wide employer engagement programme, creating a Local Authority graduate internship opportunity to develop a Local Authority strategy to increase the offer of work experience placements, traineeships and apprenticeships across the Local Authority and its partners, and working with Community Links to create a voluntary and community sector based graduate internship opportunity to stimulate the creation of work experience placements, traineeships and apprenticeships across the voluntary and community sector.
3. Increase the work readiness of young people and raise their awareness of apprenticeships by delivering Next Step employability conferences and employability workshops to priority client groups, providing a tailored recruitment and matching service, and supporting short intervention mentoring relationships aimed at Jobseekers Allowance claimants aged 18-24 years
The key project outcomes over the two year project included creating 100 employment opportunities for young people, getting 500 employers participating in awareness raising events, offering one to one support for 200 employers, and creating 25 employment or work experience opportunities within the voluntary and community sector. It was also aimed to provide employability support to 900 students, enhanced employment opportunities for 25 Looked After Children, targeted mentoring support for 40 Jobseekers Allowance claimants aged 18-24 years, and to support 100 young people into contracted employment lasting a minimum of six months.
The Operations Manager, Bromley Education Business Partnership advised members of the Partnership that a number of employer engagement meetings had now taken place and that a series of employability workshops had been arranged for young people seeking to move into employment. One to one employer support was taking place with 20 employers, and five young people had been supported into employment. The two Local Authority graduate interns had now been appointed, and were expected to start in post shortly.
Sam Parrett, Bromley College of Further and Higher Education underlined the importance of ensuring that young people were supported into employment that had opportunities for training and development. She was also concerned to note the ‘door knocking’ element of the project, which aimed to identify young people whose employment, education and training status was unknown as this was the responsibility of the Youth Support Service. The Youth Support Programme Development Officer confirmed that the Bromley Youth Employment Project Round 2 funding would enable additional ‘door knocking’ to take place where appropriate, including to young people aged 18 years and over, and that this would not be used to replace any responsibilities which were part of the Local Authority’s duties.
RESOLVED that the update be noted.