The East Midlands colleges (see below) have been given a share of £83 million to offer high quality training places to the long-term unemployed, with 75,000 being provided nationally. In the current economic climate this group find it harder as more people compete for jobs. This help is in addition to the existing support on offer in colleges to people who are unemployed.
Courses will be matched to the local job market, from retail to hospitality, right up to vocational training at the equivalent of A-level standard. People accessing the courses will also be able to continue their training once they get a job, ensuring that they get a range of skills which will help them secure sustainable employment.
The investment combined with £100 million announced in October 2008 to help those facing redundancy means that new support will help over 100,000 people nationally to get real help to get and keep jobs.
Regional Minister Phil Hope said:
"I met over 30 students from Northamptonshire colleges and schools yesterday for a question and answer session about help for young people during the global economic downturn. They asked me a number of important and searching questions. One was to ask what the government was doing to help tackle youth unemployment. This additional support will go a long way to bring real help to young people in the East Midlands. It will help young people with the problems they face now, it will help them to develop their employability and help ensure they can take advantage of the opportunities that the upturn, when it comes, will bring."
Skills Secretary John Denham said:
"We will not stand by and leave people abandoned on the dole with no support. Our primary aim is to keep the time people spend out of work to a minimum while making the return to work a stepping stone to a more skilled future. I would encourage people across the East Midlands to take advantage of these training opportunities.
"In these tough times we must do all we can to help people back into work and prepare for the upturn when it comes. We know that people whose skills are most up to date find it easier to find a job and businesses with well trained staff are better placed to survive the recession and take advantage of new opportunities.
"We are currently refocusing the whole skills system, making it more flexible and able to adapt to meet the changing needs of people and businesses across the East Midlands."
The extra support also means that for the first time Further Education Colleges will be paid to get people back into work, as part of moves to make the £5 billion spent annually on adult skills and training work harder for those suffering as a result of the recession.
While the Government cannot guarantee existing jobs in any economic climate, the new measures will help people get the skills and qualifications that will boost their prospects of getting a new job.
The package aims to give people confidence that, if they lose their jobs, there will be real help available to improve their skills or gain new ones, so that they are fit for the jobs of the future. It will ensure that a period of unemployment can be an opportunity for people to gain the skills they will need to get on in work in the future, and take advantage of likely expansion areas as the economy improves.
Colleges ready to help people across the East Midlands are:
- Boston College
- Brooksby Melton College
- Castle College
- Chesterfield College
- Derby College
- Grantham College
- Leicester College
- Lincoln College
- Loughborough College
- Moulton College
- New College Stamford
- New College Nottingham
- Northampton College
- Regent College
- SE Derbyshire College
- South Leicester College
- South Notts College
- Stephenson College
- Tresham Institute
- University of Derby
- West Notts College
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