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George Osbourne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has announced budget plans which he says will create 100,000 work experience opportunities for young people over the next two years. If achieved, that figure would be five times greater than was originally planned for the work experience scheme funded by the government.
The work experience will be controlled by Jobcentre Plus who will try to pair up local companies with young people looking to gain some experience in the work place.
In the Budget, Osbourne also laid out plans for an additional 50,000 apprenticeships over and above the 200,000 which were already planned before 2015. Those extra 50,000 apprenticeships will cost an estimated £180 million to the government.
Delivering the Budget on Wednesday, Mr Osbourne pledged that his government would, ‘deal with youth unemployment’ which has been increasing in recent times. “This government is backing real training in secure jobs,” said the Chancellor.
Not everyone was happy with the budget announcements on work experience and apprenticeships for young people though.
Ben Robinson, the chairman of Youth Fight for Jobs, a group which campaigns for young people’s employment, said: “The Government's plans for apprenticeships and work experience do not cover the scale of the problem, especially with two and a half million unemployed and youth unemployment at record highs. With university and even college ruled out now because of this government, these figures will get worse rather than better.”
And Pam Tatlow, chief Executive of Million+, a university think tank, accepted that the an increase in apprenticeships and work experience places was obviously a step forward, but that more still needed to be done.
“The Government must do more to ensure that young people have a real choice and have the opportunity to achieve a degree or advanced technical qualification or apprenticeship and get a good job,” said Ms Tatlow. She added that the freezing of university student numbers this year made ‘no sense’.
We might not have quite 100,000 work experience openings for you to apply for – but we do advertise a regular supply of placements, work experience opportunities and internships on the e4s website. Check out our latest work experience vacancies now.
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