Businesses urged to help tackle youth unemployment

New Economy is urging businesses in Greater Manchester to help address the present growth in youth unemployment across the region.

It is hosting a recruitment event on Thursday 18 August at The University of Manchester where there will be an opportunity to engage with talented 18-24 year old jobseekers.

Businesses already signed up to attend include Aegis, The Arora Hotel, Debenhams, The Mileage Company, The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and Royal Mail.

Attendees at the event will include Greater Manchester’s Future Jobs Fund (FJF) employees, who are nearing the end of a six-month temporary job, or have already completed.

The Greater Manchester FJF scheme ended in March 2011, with the last of the temporary employees due to complete work in September. Employers can still register for free on the Opportunities Now website – http://on.meganexus.com – where they can add a profile and view the CV’s of past and present FJF participants.

Mike Emmerich, chief executive of New Economy, said: “The upcoming event at the University of Manchester along with the ‘Opportunities Now’ website has been designed to help put Future Jobs Fund participants in direct contact with employers, recruitment agencies and training providers.”

“The Future Jobs Fund successfully provided temporary employment to a large number of young people in Greater Manchester and we would like to ensure that these participants now receive ample support and opportunities to go into full-time employment.

“We would like to encourage interested organisations to participate in this event – it’s absolutely free and provides access to a skilled group of enthusiastic potential employees.”

Steve Grant, assistant director of Human Resources at the University of Manchester welcomed the initiative: “For us the Future Jobs Fund initiative was a great success. We were able to offer further employment to a number of the young people at the end of the six months and others were able to secure work elsewhere using the skills they had acquired whilst they were with us.

“Quite often the major barrier young people face in securing employment is lack of skills and experience. The FJF has helped bridge that gap. As one of the largest employers in Manchester we are very keen to do all that we can to support unemployed people into work.”

The Greater Manchester FJF event will take place at the Whitworth Hall, University of Manchester on Thursday 18th August, from 09.30am to 12.30pm.