YOUNG people in Birmingham are amongst the hardest hit in the UK by unemployment during the recession, but thanks to a new scheme up to 750 of them are being helped back into employment.

A new government initiative is helping to upskill 18 to 24 year olds who have been unemployed for a year and other long term unemployed people, to help them into the job market.

The Future Jobs Fund (FJF), which is a £1billion national government scheme aiming to create 170,000 jobs across the UK for young and long-term unemployed people, is generating paid work placements to benefit communities and give people a foot on the employment ladder.

One organisation accessing the FJF is Birmingham-based Family Housing Association, a social landlord which provides over 2,100 properties for affordable housing for rent and low cost home ownership in the West Midlands.

Kandyce Downer, training and employment coordinator at Family Housing Association, explained: “Birmingham has one of the highest proportions of unemployed young people in the UK.

“These are real jobs for real people. We have seen what these people have to offer and it has been refreshing for staff to have people on FJF work placements coming into their teams.

“We have been lucky to get a real mix of people on the work placements. We have young people who have never worked before, people who have been made redundant, and lone parents who have had to stop work to bring up a family and are now coming back into the workplace.”

From painters and decorators to customer service advisors and project workers, there are 34 people being offered work placements at Family Housing Association across all areas of the business, through the fund.

Family Housing Association is receiving funding from the FJF through a national partnership between Groundwork UK and the National Housing Federation. Be Birmingham, the city’s local strategic partnership, is also providing funding to offer placements. There are already 14 people who have been in employment with Family Housing Association since November, and another 20 people starting in March.

These paid six-month placements are filled through referrals from the Jobcentre. To be eligible for the scheme you have to live in Birmingham and be either have been claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance for between six to 12 months, or have been claiming another out-of-work benefit for more than nine months.

Family also offers people on the placements in-house training once a week. This includes an introduction to social housing, confidence building, CV writing, interview skills and team building, as well as giving everyone on a placement the opportunity to gain an NVQ in customer service.

Kandyce added: “The NVQ in customer service is an invaluable qualification because the skill learnt can be applied to any area of the business or different jobs.

“All departments have found it enriching to have people come in on the FJF placements. The 14 people who have started have brought energy and enthusiasm with them. It was quite an impact with 14 people starting on one day and we have another 20 starting on one day in March. Family is committed to helping support unemployed residents into training and employment and the FJF programme is proving to be a positive way in which we can do that.”

Jackie Mould, director of Be Birmingham, said: “The Future Jobs Fund is a great example of agencies working together to help the city’s young unemployed and others who face significant disadvantage in getting into employment. Nearly 600 people have already found work as a result of the programme in the city and this number is growing all the time. By the end of March 2010, the scheme is on target to recruit 750 young people, making Birmingham one of the three best performing local authorities in the country.”