Richard Plaster

ISLAND employers are being asked to provide work experience for unemployed school leavers for up to six months.

The cost to the employer will be zero and the trainees will receive an allowance from the States. The scheme, called ‘advance to work’, will be similar to one which was used during a previous recession in the 1990s. It will be overseen by the Skills Jersey board.

Up to £8.2 million has been earmarked for Skills Jersey to use from the total £44 million emergency funding approved by the States to boost the Island’s economy. The money will be drawn down as and when it is needed and will also be used to provide additional places at Highlands and extra staff at Careers Jersey.

The plan is that school leavers will be given work by local employers for three to four days a week for up to six months and will also be given training for one to two days a week at Highlands or another appropriate centre.

Richard Plaster, who chairs Skills Jersey, said that according to official figures there were already 172 unemployed school leavers aged between 16 and 19 on the Social Security register, of whom more than half had been jobless for over 12 weeks.