St.Helens Council and St Helens Chamber join forces to get young people work ready and into job

July 20, 2012 - PRLog -- St.Helens Council and St Helens Chamber have joined forces to support 200 young people from St Helens into Apprenticeships.

St.Helens Council has provided £500,000 of funding to support the initiative, which will be delivered by St Helens Chamber. Working with local businesses, the programme will support young people who live in St Helens to access Apprenticeship positions.
To encourage local businesses to support the programme, businesses that create a new permanent Apprenticeship vacancy for a young person will be offered a subsidy of £2,500 towards their salary.

Cllr Marie Rimmer, Leader of St.Helens Council commented: “We are delighted to be able to help our young people into employment in these very difficult times. This is one of a number of schemes we intend to support, to provide young people with a start to their working lives and to commence what, hopefully, will be a successful career. Our partnership with the Chamber has already provided major benefits to the Town and this is another important way we are improving the economic prospects of the town and the life chances of our young people.

“Youth unemployment is a tragic waste of talent and we need to address this issue, both locally and nationally, we will continue to do our utmost to improve the employment prospects and call on the Town’s employers to assist in this goal by supporting this scheme.”

Kath Boullen, Chief Executive at St Helens Chamber, added: “We are delighted to be able to help local young people to get started on their careers in St Helens, as a result of this support provided by St Helens Council. This funding will enable at least 200 young people to secure a permanent job with Apprenticeship training, and we know from experience that local businesses will get behind this.

“Last year with the help of St Helens Council we launched our 100 Apprenticeships in 100 Days challenge, which actually resulted in 118 Apprenticeships being created. It is still tough for young people to get started and we really appreciate the priority St.Helens Council attach to helping young people in the Borough.”

The Chamber will be organising a series of Apprenticeship Open Days throughout the year for young people interested in applying for the Apprenticeship programme, so please check local press for details. The first open day will take place on Monday 30th July 2012.

Apprenticeships will be available in range of areas, including; business administration, manufacturing, customer services, sales and marketing, health & social care, retail and IT.

Businesses recruiting an Apprentice through the programme will be required to pay a minimum £2.65 per hour for the first year (the national minimum wage for Apprentices) increasing to at least national minimum wage after that. The subsidy will not be available for short-term or fixed-term contracts of employment.

For more information please contact St Helens Chamber on 01744 742000 or visit www.sthelenschamber.com or to find out details of the next open day visit our facebook page www.facebook.com/sthcapprenticeships

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