As the government backed Kickstart Scheme comes to a close, Staffordshire based human resource consultants’ Centric HR hailed the scheme as a roaring success for both young people and employers.
As government appointed ‘gateway providers’, Centric HR worked hard alongside the DWP and local job centres to enable 126 work placements, of which 27 young people gained full-time employment or apprenticeships following their 6-month work experience which equates to a healthy 21% of their placements.
The Kickstart Scheme was a government backed initiative which provided funding to employers to create jobs for 16- to 24-year-olds on Universal Credit. Although it did come in for some criticism in the national media Centric HR’s feedback from both employers and kickstarters was extremely positive.
“The feedback we received was that the scheme gave valuable work experience to the Kickstarters offering some of them a first insight into a busy work environment; whilst it also provided employers with not only valuable extra pairs of hands but an injection of new ideas and fresh input, all funded by the government. Without a shadow of a doubt we believe that had it not been for the COVID19 pandemic the scheme would have offered even more opportunities over the last couple of years.” said Sandra Berns, Managing Director, Centric HR.
“We ourselves utilised the scheme to offer a number of work placements to young people looking for opportunities. In total we provided 5 work experience placements with one of the kickstarters James Barton securing a full-time job with us, whilst all of the others have also thankfully secured jobs. James has just recently celebrated his 12 month anniversary with us and has become an integral part of our team and taking on more responsibilities for the running of the office as part of his career pathway.
“This achievement aligns with our just cause statement: “Supporting young people into careers and employment to enable SME growth and job creation in the local community”, added Sandra.
Photo caption: Members of the Centric HR team with kickstarters 2021
