Through the Kickstart for Employers scheme, the government has introduced a £2 billion fund to create hundreds of thousands of high quality 6-month work placements aimed at those aged 16 to 24 who are on Universal Credit and at risk of long term unemployment. Funding available for each job will cover 100% of the relevant National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week, plus the associated employer National Insurance contributions and employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions. More information about the scheme can be accessed on the gov.uk website.

In addition to financial contributions to cover the minimum wage, NI and pension contributions, employers will also receive up to £1,500 additional funding to cover associated costs for set up, support and training. All placements must be new jobs and they must not replace existing or planned vacancies, or cause existing employees or contractors to lose or reduce their employment.

We know that many Partnership members will be interested in the opportunity this presents both to deliver productively on your organisations’ missions but also to create interesting job prospects for young people at this challenging time. We also know that not all members will be in a position to develop or host 30 new opportunities, which is required to apply directly to the scheme.

We would like to establish the potential demand for participation in this scheme across Bristol Green Capital Partnership as we know that within our network are many fantastic employers with the potential to provide interesting, challenging and high quality jobs for young people. Depending on the level of response, Bristol Green Capital Partnership could, for example, represent a group of employers, or we could connect interested members with other organisations willing to act as hosts.

From prospective employers, we will need to know:

• Organisation name
• Who is filling out the survey on behalf of your organisation
• How many jobs you anticipate being able to create as part of this scheme
• A brief paragraph about your organisation or link to your website
• The job title and a brief job description for the new role(s) you may create
• Brief details of how this opportunity is new, avoids the risk of causing employees or other contractors to lose out on work
• Brief details of how you would propose to help new employees, joining your organisation via this scheme, develop basic skills such as attendance, timekeeping and teamwork and develop experience, with a view to looking for long-term work prospects
• Your thoughts on activities or support that would help you provide meaningful job opportunities for candidates
• Any other thoughts you have about this scheme / opportunity
• In accordance with GDPR, if we have your permission to share details of your response with trusted parties (including BGCP board members, strategic partners) in order to coordinate a response

We are inviting members to respond to this survey by 15 October to help us establish the level of demand and opportunity for this scheme, in order to help determine our actions in response.