Youth Contract

The Youth Contract is a package of schemes aimed at helping young people into sustained employment, launched in April 2012 combining existing schemes with new ones.

The Youth Contract measures are outlined below:

1. Apprenticeship Grant for Employers of 16-24 year olds (AGE 16-24): Payments of £1,500 are available to employers with less than 50 employees that take on young apprentices.

2. Work experience: Placements are available for 16-24 year olds, through Jobcentre Plus who have been claiming JSA for at least 13 weeks.

3. Support for 16 and 17 year old NEETs: Payments of £2,200 are made to providers who take on 16 and 17 year olds who are not in education, employment or training and who have low or no qualifications, and those from other disadvantaged backgrounds.

4. Sector-based work academies: Some 18-24 old JSA claimants will be offered a mixture of training, work experience, and a job interview at a local firm through Jobcentre Plus.

5. Extra support at Jobcentre Plus: 18-24 year old JSA claimants will be offered weekly rather fortnightly signing on meetings at the Jobcentre Plus.

6. Funding for localised Youth Contracts: Localised Youth Contracts are available in Leeds City Region, Liverpool and Newcastle. The cities designed their own local schemes using national funding.

7. Wage incentives: Payments of up to £2,275 were available to employers who take on young people (aged 18-24) claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) for more than six months. Enrolments for this scheme ended on 6 August 2014.