On the money
Sylvia's blog

Jan 12

Funding opportunities for new talent

“Welcome to the new website and my first blog for the National Skills Academy for Financial Services (NSAFS).

This blog aims to provide a digest of public funding opportunities and relevant updates on news and regulatory changes that affect your training and development needs, as well as the recent activity of the NSAFS.

This first entry focuses on the government initiatives surrounding youth unemployment issues.

At the National Skills Academy for Financial Services (NSAFS), we aim to support young people looking to break into the industry in a time when graduate and school-leaver unemployment is high. We believe employability skills and becoming “work-ready” are essential for young people alongside the professional and technical qualifications which the NSAFS also offers.

We are also dedicated to educating young people in money management through our continued financial capability projects.

As the market picks up, we are ready to deliver new talent into the industry and help encourage employers to recruit young people again on a more significant scale. Currently 500,000 young people are claiming job seekers allowance, so we see it is a crucial time for stimulating work and training opportunities.

The government has been working on this agenda and there are various opportunities for funding to help employers support this initiative. Recent developments include:

• The White Paper “Building Britain’s Recovery: Achieving Full Employment” sets out a £400 million programme over the next 18 months, including £300 million to tackle youth unemployment.

Investing in Potential

• The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced the government strategy “Investing in Potential” which targets the 16-24 age group including financial incentives available for employers to take on 16-17 year old apprentices. The subsidies of £2,500 are available for 5000 employment places.

• The 15th December saw Yvette Cooper, Work and Pensions Secretary, announce that over 100,000 new opportunities for young people will mean that everyone under 25 will be guaranteed a job, training or work experience after six months of claiming Job Seekers Allowance, as part of the “Young Person’s Guarantee”.

Backing Young Britain

• The “Backing Young Britain” campaign continues to encourage employers to take on young people for work experience, internships and as apprentices.

• Up to £1000 is available to employers for recruiting each eligible 19-24 year old who has been claiming Job Seekers Allowance continuously for 9 months or more. At the moment it is only available for certain sectors but more are to be announced.

• The “Future Jobs Fund” is aiming to create 17,000 new jobs for 18-24 year olds who have been out of work for nearly a year. Read more about what is involved.

Please take some time to look around our new website to find out how the NSAFS works, our training and development solutions, and the various projects we are currently involved in. For more on the NSAFS’ current activity please see our recent news and upcoming events.

Subscribe to e-mail alerts for this blog for more updates and news for the financial services industry.
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Sylvia.