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Opportunities for Youth Programme

Today, Cumbria County Council's Cabinet met 3 young people, currently enrolled on the Opportunities for Youth Programme. The young trainees explained what qualifications they have gained while on the scheme and how the scheme has opened up employment opportunities which otherwise would not have been available to them. 

Due to the success of the current programme Councillors also approved a new project, 'Pathways for Youth Employment', to be set up from March 2004, to provide a further 40 employment placements each year over a 3 year period giving young people from disadvantaged areas of the County access to training and work experience. 

County Councillor Lawson Short, Cabinet Spokesman for Environmental Issues & Protection says 

"I am delighted that these 3 young people have come to the meeting today to share their own experiences while enrolled on the Opportunities for Youth Programme. For many years now, Cumbria County Council has been supportive of creating employment opportunities for young people, particularly in areas facing long term economic decline. This Programme comes to an end in March next year so an evaluation study has recently been undertaken to give us an idea of how successful the Programme has been. From this, we can now look at how we can refocus the programme in the future to make sure that the young people who live in the most disadvantaged areas of the County continue to have access to training and work experience. The new programme will require an annual budget of £187k to create around 40 placements each year over a 3 year period. Each of these placements will be expected to achieve a Level 2 qualification in an appropriate NVQ. We will also look at how the County Council, as an employer, can improve its own recruitment practices to make it easier to recruit young people. Supporting this new programme will increase the educational standards and skills levels of the young people taking part and equip them for good quality jobs and enable them to live in and contribute to their communities."