12:00pm Tuesday 8th June 2010
HOUSING associations operating across the South-West are among 63 throughout England signed up to a scheme that is providing jobs for people aged 18 to 24.
The scheme has come about after the National Housing Federation and environmental charity Groundwork UK made an ambitious joint bid for government cash under the Future Jobs Fund.
Together they secured £15m to create up to 6,300 new jobs, with up to 1,600 of those to be created within the housing sector alone.
So far the Future Jobs Fund programme has created and filled 225 posts in the region. Of these, 74 have been within the housing associations themselves.
The jobs will equip unemployed young people with vocational training, employment and in many instances practical experience to work in the emerging low carbon economy, where thousands of new jobs are expected to be created over the next few years.
The posts, which will be created in areas such as environmental maintenance and green enterprise, will last for at least six months, provide a minimum of 25 hours of work a week and be paid at least the minimum wage.
Housing associations throughout the South-West have been doing their bit to tackle unemployment for years, offering employment, apprenticeships and training opportunities.
The National Housing Federation’s South West Regional Manager, Catherine Brabner, said: “The Future Jobs Fund programme has provided a welcome boost to the work housing associations are already doing to tackle worklessness in the South West.
“The majority of these posts have been created in Cornwall and Devon – both areas where new employment opportunities are badly needed.”
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