Aberdeen City Council has secured more than 300 job opportunities for young people at risk of long-term unemployment through the Kickstart scheme.
There have been 348 Kickstart posts across 68 public, private and third sector employers secured via the city council to date, with dozens more applications under consideration.
This represents almost £2.5million of grant funding from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).
The local authority is acting as a Kickstart gateway to support businesses to access the scheme and as an employer.
Council co-leader, Jenny Laing, said: “Young people are the group hardest hit by the economic impacts of the pandemic and oil and gas downturn.
“Aberdeen sits firmly at the top of Scotland’s redundancy notification table, has seen job posting numbers plummet, and a significant reduction in new apprenticeship opportunities.
“It is incumbent on all of us to do what we can to support our young people and assure them that although things may appear bleak just now, there is hope for the future.
“By taking the roles of both Kickstart employer and gateway organisation, we want to ensure that internships and training opportunities are available to the city’s young people – and make sure that they know about them. We are doing this through our Kickstart and Young Person Guarantee commitments.
“Aberdeen City Council continues to encourage other employers to also provide young people with job and skills development opportunities through Kickstart.
“We are also creating graduate internships and apprenticeships and I’m pleased to report that in doing so we are in the process of ‘adopting’ an apprentice who had been made redundant.”
The council has successfully applied for 155 posts for young people within the authority, offering a very wide variety of posts for young city residents across the organisation.
Every Kickstart intern in the council will have a buddy and will be assigned an employability keyworker as a mentor to ensure that they can build the essential skills they need during their placements and for the future.
The employability and People and Organisational Development teams will work closely with the council’s interns to deliver a range of upskilling activities on top of the on-the-job training they will receive.
Marko Steiger, co-owner of Palm Safe, which has secured 20 Kickstart posts, said: “Palm Safe is delighted to be taking part in the Kickstart scheme.
“As a new business, we were facing cashflow challenges building stock and hiring to grow.
“The scheme will allow us to move our business forward at pace while helping young people who have been most badly affected by the pandemic, get the best possible start on the career ladder.
“We look forward to helping our new team develop and grow into the exciting positions the Kickstart scheme has helped us create.”
CEO of charity Absafe, Louise Richardson, said: “Absafe is delighted to be involved with Kickstart, we believe in investing in the young people of Aberdeen by giving them opportunities that they may not have without this program.
“Absafe is very excited to work with Aberdeen City Council on this project and understand that it is worthwhile and can make a massive difference and hopefully give young people hope that local businesses want to support our local young communities.
“The world of employment is difficult, especially now and with the changing dynamics of the energy industry, we need to ensure that we can expose young people to different ways they can use their vast skills to ensure that Aberdeen can remain a vibrant and forward-thinking City to work and live.”
The Council’s City Growth employability team continues to liaise with the department for work and pensions and businesses to secure meaningful jobs for young people.
For more information, email kickstart@aberdeencity.gov.uk
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