Make JobcentrePlus more flexible
For most young people, work experience isn’t hard to find.
But for someone living independently and struggling to make ends meet, getting that taste of life in the career of your choice, or volunteering in the industry of your dreams can cost you your week’s food.
Personal advisers at Jobcentre Plus need more flexibility to decide whether a young person is taking part in valid training or volunteering that will increase their future prospects.
They should also support them in taking not just any job, but working towards the career of their choice.
The New Deal has been very successful in moving the majority of young people back into employment, but Government must recognise that young people living independently find it even more difficult to move into training and work for the long-term without the support of agencies such as JobcentrePlus.
"He was 24 and wanted to study for his A Levels including history - he wanted to go to University to do a BA in History. But A Levels were not allowed on the New Deal. He found a job, after living on JSA for four months, in a call-centre and is now working there. He was a very committed guy, very focussed. He would have gone to University if he'd got to do his A Levels.”
Not everyone is able to do this:
"Latest case was of a young guy who was 21. He wanted to study an Access course for University. He was very determined to go to university so he continued on his education and lost his Housing Benefit and Jobseekers Allowance. He secured a job in a petrol station, worked every night, and studied in the petrol station every night to be able to pay his rent. He managed to finish the Access course and in September last year he started to read for a BA in Developmental Pschology at the University of Sussex."
