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Leader wants Renfrewshire to lead the way on tackling unemployment

Invest in Renfrewshire > News  > Leader wants Renfrewshire to lead the way on tackling unemployment

Leader wants Renfrewshire to lead the way on tackling unemployment

Renfrewshire Council’s Leader wants the area to lead the way on tackling youth unemployment and is urging partner organisations to do all they can to help.

The council has made a significant investment in its £8m Invest in Renfrewshire programme, which aims to reduce youth unemployment and boost the local economy.

Now, Councillor Mark Macmillan is asking the council’s public-sector partners to consider whether they can do more to help tackle the issue.

Councillor Mark Macmillan said: “The rate of youth unemployment among young people is far higher than the average for all age groups, in both Renfrewshire and Scotland.

“The council is determined to avoid a ‘lost generation’ of young people who are frozen out of work – which is why we have made tackling youth unemployment a priority though Invest in Renfrewshire.

“The public sector has a crucial role to play in addressing youth unemployment, which is why we are formally asking our partners to buy in to our agenda of up-scaling what Renfrewshire’s public sector does to tackle this issue.

“We want Renfrewshire to lead the way when it comes to cutting unemployment among 18 – 24 year olds.”

A meeting of the Renfrewshire Community Planning Partnership Board saw the council ask other public-sector agencies in the area to consider how well they use existing council or government programmes set up to help young people into work.

Partner agencies agreed to:

  • Engage with the Invest programme and provide direct support to young people;
  • Agree to host as many internships, work placements and workplace visits as possible;
  • Set ambitious targets in providing job opportunities and report back on these.

Invest in Renfrewshire includes an employer recruitment incentive, which pays half the wage costs of a new employee at national minimum wage for up to nine months, with an extra £1,000 available to companies agreeing to pay the Living Wage of £7.50 an hour.

It also includes a graduate internship programme, which pays a subsidy of up to £5,000 to organisations taking on an unemployed graduate for a project-led position of up to 11 months.