12 Jul 2021

Is your organisation looking for Kickstart participants?

Back in April 2021, BVSC was granted a contract to deliver the governments’ Kickstart Scheme, an initiative that provides funding to organisations to create jobs for young people 16 – 24 years of age, claiming Universal Credit and at risk of long-term unemployment.

The aim of the scheme is to provide young people with a meaningful employment experience, helping them to develop key transferable skills which will enable them to gain long term employment after completing a 6-month placement. Recruitment for Kickstart will be managed by the Department of Work and Pensions and all roles will be advertised within Job Centres.

BVSC Kickstart’s offering is uniquely tailored to our sector. We aim to engage with organisations that would like to benefit from the Kickstart Scheme and act as host organisations. These host organisations may not be eligible themselves to apply for Kickstart funding or may not have the capacity to apply for funding directly and therefore by engaging with BVSC, are able to benefit from having resources placed with them for 6 months cost-free. Our offering will replicate the model used for the Talent Match programme; BVSC Kickstart will employ the participants who will then be seconded out to host organisations for their employment experience with support from BVSC’s HR Coordinator.

We have already set the wheels in motion for some exciting positions within BVSC. This will be crucial with assisting our post-COVID recovery especially for teams such as our Enterprises team who were the most affected by the pandemic. As we go to press, these positions will have been sent to the DWP ready to go live within Job Centres by mid-July.

We are looking to engage with organisations within our sector and beyond who would like to benefit from hosting a Kickstart participant. All recruitment costs and participant salaries are covered by a government grant allowing organisations to employ resources without them impacting their staffing budgets. This scheme will help a young person get back into the job market whilst also providing your organisation with additional skills and knowledge that young people bring.

If you are in need of additional resources and would like to speak to BVSC about how we can help you recruit a Kickstart participant, please email kickstart@bvsc.org

Kickstart Leaflet

Article Source: BVSC