Young people in Scotland who are struggling to get into work will be supported by an additional £4 million through the Scottish Government’s Young Person’s Guarantee (YPG).
Three programmes will take a share of the £4 million on offer and it will aim to connect people with employers, training, and volunteering opportunities. The Guarantee is to help the young people who were impacted the most by the Covid-19 pandemic and will include those who are experience mental health issues and those who are care-experienced
Jamie Hepburn, the Minister for Youth Employment and Training, has said:
“We want all of our young people to succeed, no matter their background or circumstances. Our aim is to ensure those seeking work have access to valuable support and opportunities for years to come.
We know that many young people may have additional barriers to successfully gaining permanent work and the uncertainty caused by the pandemic combined with the cost-of-living crisis has made this more challenging. By connecting young people seeking work directly with employers we can offer them potentially life changing opportunities.
This additional support is on top of £15 million already allocated to local authorities through the Young Person’s Guarantee for the current year and will build on our strong record of tackling youth unemployment.”
Local authorities have been provided with significant funds already, that they use in addition to their own local funding, in an effort to connect every 16- to 24-year-old in Scotland to an opportunity. Whether it be through higher education, training, volunteering, an apprenticeship, or a job.
In 2022-2023 almost £60 million was provided to help employment in Scotland, including £15 million for the YPG. With the UK Government putting a lot of emphasis on their Levelling Up ambitions, this funding will go some way to helping these be progressed in Scotland whilst opening the window further for businesses to identify potential employees where they may have potentially not looked before.
