Results of £5m youth jobs scheme 'not good enough'

The mayor of the West of England has admitted the initial results of a £5m-per-year scheme designed to help young people into work are "not good enough" after it reached only 300 people in its first year.

The Youth Guarantee trailblazer programme failed to meet its target of supporting 500 young people over 12 months. Of the 300 participants, 126 progressed into a job, study or training.

About 22,000 young people across the region are thought to be not in employment, education or training (Neet).

Labour mayor Helen Godwin said there had been "some really good outcomes" and promised a redesigned scheme would have a greater impact in its second year.

Brandon Oputeri was trying to get into carpentry for about four months.

"It was a mental battle," he said. "I don't know where to start, I don't know how to do it, I don't know if I could do it.

"You need to have the experience and qualifications in order to get onto site or get a job. It was quite challenging for me to try to see where I could go without much qualification."

Brandon was referred to the West of England's youth guarantee scheme, which offers one-to-one coaching, CV and interview preparation as well as matching participants with a two-week work placement.

Brandon's placement was with Volunteer it Yourself, an organisation that works with young people to give them skills by doing up community spaces. His first project was building a shelter at Hartcliffe City Farm.

"When I got there to the site, everyone was so welcoming and supportive," he said. "It was an amazing feeling to be on that site working, showcasing what I can do."

Managers were so impressed with Brandon's skills and attitude they offered him a paid, permanent position. Now he works to train up other young people on projects around the country.

"I'm staying here for the long term," he said. "I didn't think I'd be in this position at all, it's like a relief. I'm so grateful."

His advice to others? "Never be quiet if you don't know something, just ask the question.

"I was just asking questions and questions and questions and at the time I thought they must be bored of me, but they liked it," he added.

"There's some really good stories, there's some really good outcomes, but I would like to see a much bigger impact," said Godwin.

The government has committed a further £5m to extend the project into a second year, but Godwin said the Work and Pensions Secretary had agreed there needed to be an improvement.

"It's not OK for us to be spending public money with those sort of outcomes," she added. "I'm not going to defend the numbers because they aren't good enough."

The mayor has pledged an extra £2m of support from her own budgets, bringing the total spent on the Youth Guarantee trailblazer to £12m over two years.

The mayoral funding will be used to pay charities and community organisations to help deliver the scheme.

"Our community organisations are best placed to have a connection and a relationship with these young people," she said.

Working directly with the voluntary sector will mean "not paying lots and lots of staff," Godwin added. "I think we're going to be able to reach more people."

The new target for the Youth Guarantee is to get 1,000 young people into work in the second year - almost a ten-fold increase on year one.

The combined authority plans to launch a Skills Strategy in September that will pledge to make the West of England the first "Neet-zero" region in the country.

"That is super ambitious," said Godwin. "We sit just above the national average at the moment, but I think we can do it.

"It's a puzzle that we need to solve, and I'm more confident that we're on the way to solving that than I was a year ago."

Labour North West MP Darren Jones said: "There is a problem with youth unemployment which is why schemes like this are important."

He added that "we don't think the scheme is performing in the best way".

Bristol Green councillor Heather Mack said the blame was government finances: "We're looking at the past two decades of austerity.

"The reason it's costing so much is the support isn't there," she added.

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