Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support young people on the Kickstart scheme to progress to apprenticeships and further education to up-skill them.

The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Kickstart Scheme was a job creation programme established to ensure that 16-24 year olds in receipt of Universal Credit would have access to fully-funded six-month job opportunities. Our work with employers has seen over 162,600 jobs having been started by young people, who were most at risk of suffering the scarring effects of long-term unemployment as a result of the pandemic.

Employers participating in the Kickstart Scheme are required to provide employability support to young people to allow them to build their skills in the workplace. This support is intended to improve their chances of progressing to find long-term sustainable work. DWP provided additional grant funding to employers of £1,500 for each young person to support with this.

Young people returning to Universal Credit following the end of a Kickstart job will be given bespoke support appropriate to their circumstances by their Jobcentre Plus Work Coach. This may include coaching or guidance towards other provision or support options if appropriate. Work coaches also promote apprenticeship opportunities to claimants of all ages as a first step in a career as part of their regular interventions. In addition to this, DWP secured an agreement with the Department for Education that Kickstart jobs would not count as previous employment with that employer for the purposes of the apprenticeship incentive. This was intended to encourage employers to actively consider transitioning on a young person into an apprenticeship after their Kickstart job.