Chancellor Makes Wise Investment in Young People

LONDON - Groundwork Welcomes Budget Boost for Training

Groundwork - one of the country’s leading providers of environmentally-focused employment schemes - welcomes the boost for youth training announced in the budget.

Chief Executive of Groundwork, Tony Hawkhead, said:

“This is great news for the thousands of young people who were in danger of becoming a ‘lost generation’ with few job prospects.

Young people are our future assets and it makes sense to invest in their skills and training at this difficult economic time.

It’s important though that we focus the money on providing work which will also help to tackle climate change - through home insulation and practical measures to green our towns and cities. This will provide real skills for real jobs in the future. “

Groundwork has been managing employment projects since the early 1980s. We believe that there are a number of critical factors that must be addressed to make any new programme a success.

- Schemes must provide support and mentoring for young people alongside practical work experience. - We must focus investment on those young people who are furthest from the job market - We should build on the best of existing provision for young people who are not in education, training or employment (NEET) - Schemes must be delivered in partnership - and the third sector has particular success in engaging and motivating young people - The schemes must leave a long-term legacy in terms of benefiting the environment both locally and globally. A green low carbon focus will also help to boost a growth area of our economy. This will help ensure that the programme is sustainable, with trained young people having access to real work in the future.

Groundwork looks forward to working with partners to help new schemes become a reality.

Notes to Editors

Groundwork is a leading environmental regeneration charity.

We support communities in need, working with partners to help improve the quality of people’s lives, their prospects and potential and the places where they live, work and play. www.groundwork.org.uk

Last year, Groundwork provided 59,000 weeks worth of training and helped people gain 8,000 formal qualifications. Groundwork can provide case studies of existing youth training schemes and further comment on the government’s announcements.

Source: Groundwork UK

Contact details: Jon Kedwards, PR & Public Affairs Manager, Groundwork UK +44-(0)121-237-5816 / +44-(0)7815-199265, jon.kedwards at groundwork.org.uk