Phase one: over thousand 18 – 24 year olds to find work
The new Jobcentre Plus contract to deliver the Community Task Force Phase 1 in Devon and Cornwall has been awarded to Prospects Services Ltd. The contract worth £2.1m is the Work Experience element of the guarantee and went live at the end of January 2010.
Prospects will be working with sub-contractors in the region, offering 18 - 24 year olds the opportunity to gain work experience, training and support to help them get back to work.
Community Task Force (CTF) is part of the ‘Backing Young Britain’ scheme which offers the ‘Young Persons Guarantee’. In the 2009 Budget, ministers announced the ‘Young Person's Guarantee’ (YPG) which is a guaranteed job offer, work-focused training, or meaningful activity for all 18 - 24 year olds approaching the 12 month stage of their claim to Jobseekers Allowance (JSA).
CTF will offer up to a maximum of 6 months' quality work experience in the community, this is designed principally to improve the employability and work-related skills of claimants, and increase their chances of entering sustained employment.
At the end of CTF if a customer has not found work, they will join Stage 3 of Jobseeker Regime and Flexible New Deal (JRFND) at the point they left it.
Prospects Project Manager, Jenny Garfield said:
"Everyone within the Prospects Employment and Training division is very pleased to have been awarded this exciting new DWP contract, which aims to place over a thousand 18-24 year old jobseekers into sustainable employment. As the contract went live on the 29th January, we were delighted to receive three referrals within the first day. Everyone involved with the CTF is confident that this will be the first of many successful ventures within the Devon and Cornwall area for the Prospects group."
This is the first such Prospects contract in Devon and Cornwall and significantly highlights one of Gordon Brown’s twelve ‘Election Campaign Pledges’. Being awarded the Community Task Force contract is recognition of Prospects results driven attitude to employment services and is a great opportunity for the organisation to impress the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) as they tender for CTF Phase 2 later this year, in other parts of the country.