SCVS and the Future Jobs Fund

SCVS made a successful application to deliver 75 FJF jobs within Swansea's Voluntary Sector from January 2010 to March 2011. The programme has now finished, but the scheme made a real difference to 75 organisations and individuals accross Swansea:

The ongoing success of the Future Jobs Fund: SCVS asked some of the FJF employees to tell us about their experiences, and were overwhelmed by the response. The comments made up a 2 page special feature in our Summer 2010 'Sector 3' magazine, and the feature is available to download from resources to the right of the page.

The Future Jobs Fund was announced as part of the Budget in 2009. It was a major new initiative designed to create jobs across England, Wales and Scotland between October 2009 and March 2011. The initiative focused on young people aged 18 – 24 who have been on JSA for nearly a year but it will also support some long-term unemployed people who have barriers to employment or live in areas with high concentrations of unemployment.

The programme was designed to ensure that short-term unemployed young people or people from 'unemployment hotspots' stay connected with the labour market and do not become the long-term unemployed of the future. A key element was that the jobs created should provide community benefit and in SW Wales there is an expectation that 150,000 jobs will be created within the 3^rd sector and public sector for green jobs, jobs in social care, retail, childcare, health, energy efficiency, sports, the arts, project based etc. Funding of around £1 million will be available in Wales and this will fund the costs of employing an individual for 6 months on at least a minimum wage.

The programme presented an exciting opportunity for the Third Sector in Wales to extend the range of services it provides to communities across Wales as well as well as contributing to the challenge of youth and long-term unemployment. It also provided an opportunity for people to stay connected to the labour market and deliver genuine benefit to their local area.