The number of starts under the New Deal for Young People to the end of July 1998 totalled 128,000. Taking into account the 22,800 young people who had already moved off the programme, some 90% of active participants were on the New Deal Gateway, and the remaining 10,300 were on one of the programme's options. Figures published in September reveal that over 23,000 young people have so far secured jobs through New Deal, over two-thirds of which are unsubsidised. A further 8,940 young people are improving their employability through valuable work experience and training on other New Deal options.
On the provider side, more than 25,000 employers have signed up to the New Deal, and in August alone there were 18,000 New Deal jobs on offer. Several major companies, including John Lewis Partnership plc and Goldsmiths Group plc, are due to sign employer agreements shortly.
4.6.1.2. New Deal options
Of the 16,070 young people who have been on New Deal options so far, over 7,130 went into subsidised jobs by the end of August, and nearly 8,940 have moved on to other options (voluntary sector placement, Environment Task Force [ETF] or full-time education/ training).
The ETF and voluntary sector options are key to the success of New Deal local partnerships, providing high-quality opportunities for participants to improve their employability while at the same time helping the local community. Some 1,000 young people joined the ETF and voluntary sector options in July, and provisional figures show that a further 1,200 joined in August. These partnerships are still in a state of evolution and depend on good communications and dialogue with government. When, for example, voluntary organisations let it be known that the demand-led nature of New Deal was proving a problem, the Department for Education and Employment agreed to provide a proportion of their funding up front to enable them to meet start-up expenditure. It was further agreed that, in certain circumstances, a Guaranteed Minimum Payment would be made so that voluntary organisations can receive payment each month during the first year of their contract.
4.6.1.3. Ethnic minorities
The overall rate of unemployment amongst Black and Asian minorities is currently twice the level of the rest of the community and three times as high amongst 16-24 year-olds. The extra barriers faced by many members of ethnic minorities are seen as both a moral and an economic concern. One response to the problem is the setting up in September of a new advisory body which will help identify ways to improve employment opportunities for Black and Asian people. The Race Employment and Education Forum (REEF) will play a key role in deciding what action should be taken to improve both the employability of and employment rates amongst ethnic minorities.
The New Deal programme is also helping to tackle this imbalance. Statistics are emerging on the progress of New Deal participants from ethnic minorities who started on the programme in January in the Pathfinder areas. Although the limited scope of these pilots means that it would be unwise to read too much into these results, early indications are that young people from ethnic minorities are as likely to have obtained unsubsidised jobs as others. Of those on New Deal options, they are somewhat more likely than others to be in the full-time education/training or voluntary sector options, and somewhat less likely to be in the subsidised employment or Environment Task Force options. On the employer side, a drive was announced in September to involve more ethnic minority employers in efforts to cut unemployment. Road shows throughout the country will help ensure that ethnic minority business people, especially those running small and medium-sized businesses, are aware of the benefits offered by the New Deal programme and get involved by taking on jobseekers from their own and other ethnic groups.
4.6.1.4. New employment service for people with disabilities
A new scheme got underway in six pilot areas around the UK in September 1998, aiming to provide disabled people on incapacity benefits with dedicated help and specialised employment advice. The Personal Adviser service was launched by ministers from the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security. The service will facilitate access to training and to funds which can help secure any workplace adaptation necessary to support an individual with special needs.
The first six schemes, run by the Employment Service, have a budget of GBP 5 million. A further six pilots will be put out to open tender and are due to start in early 1999. It is thought that more than a quarter of a million people on incapacity benefits will benefit from the schemes when all twelve are running. The government wants to identify best practice from these pilots, which will run for about two years, before finalising a New Deal for Disabled People Personal Adviser Service, to be launched nationally in 2000.
4.6.1.5. Addressing the skills gap
Recent figures show that 69% of employers in the UK believe that ever more skills are required of the average employee, and that 15% of manufacturing firms expect their output to be limited by a lack of skilled labour (an increase from only 11% a year ago). Elsewhere, the first report of the National Skills Task Force was published in mid-September and called for better coordination, recruitment support for small and medium-sized companies, help with mobility, and a national strategy for skills shortages in areas such as information technology.
Existing policies that address this skills gap include efforts to create a credible and high-status apprenticeship system, the setting up of regional development agencies in order to enhance the economic prosperity of each region and to boost local skills training throughout the country, and the recent establishment of a Regional Skills and Lifelong Learning Forum, which will use local partnerships to stimulate interest and debate on regional skills strategy and new learning techniques. The Regional Development Agencies will receive extra funding to improve the UK's skills for the new millennium, including a new rapid response fund of GBP 5 million to retrain those involved in large-scale redundancies.
There have now been 45 successful bids to the Union Learning Fund, which supports trade union projects designed to promote learning and skills development in the workplace. Twenty-one unions will receive funding for projects such as transferable skills training, a life-skills course which includes paid time off work, a virtual learning centre for mobile workers, an accredited workplace learning route to enable care staff to gain formal qualifications, and a project to strengthen union capacity for involvement in the University for Industry. Trade unions are seen as well positioned to influence learning in the workplace. A further GBP 6 million will be made available for the fund over the next three years.
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