Government announces new funding opportunities to tackle youth unemployment

The Government has announced an additional £1 billion in grants to help create more than 200,000 paid jobs for young people between the ages of 18 – 24.

The move comes as official figures show that the number of young people not working or not working has increased by 37 per cent between 2021 and 2024.

Similarly, the number of new apprenticeships started by young people are also down by 40 per cent in the last decade.

The Government hopes its “New Deal” for young people will help to create the next generation of workers.

What grand funding is available under the New Deal?

One of the headline measures in the Government’s new funding pledge is the Youth Jobs Grant.

This will give businesses access to up to £3,000 in funding for every young person they hire aged 18-24. To be eligible, the applicant needs to have been on Universal Credit and been looking for work for up to six months.

This move is expected to help 60,000 young people into work in just three years, by removing potential barriers to their employment that may come from employers’ concerns about training costs.

The Government will also introduce an Apprenticeship Incentive of £2,000 for each new employee aged 16-24 taken on by an SME and they will extend the existing Jobs Guarantee to a wider age range, from 18-21 to 18-24, to create more than 35,000 extra subsidised jobs.

Looking to take advantage of this new grant funding?

If you would like to explore the advantage of grant funding, whether to support the employment of young workers or in other areas of your business, our dedicated Grant Funding Service is here to help.

To find out more about our team’s expertise, please get in touch.