CREATING OPPORTUNITIES – JOB CREATION WITH THE THIRD SECTOR

LEARNING FROM COMMUNITY JOBS SCOTLAND

Alex McTier

18th September 2013

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BACKGROUND

1. CJS is Scottish Government funded programme with two aims:• Employability programme targeted at young unemployed• Programme to support development of third sector organisations

2. Key features:• Jobs created in third sector organisations• As a minimum, jobs are 6 months, 25 hours/week and NMW• Targeted at 16-24 year olds• Training and employability support provided

3. Scope of evaluation:• 2011-12 programme• Consultations with young people (employees), employers, key

partners and analysis of monitoring data

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CJS NUMBERS AND OUTCOMES

1. 1,843 people employed in 2011-12 programme• By age:

− 4% 16-17 year olds

− 83% 18-24 year olds

− 13% 25+ year olds• Broadly representative gender and local authority distribution

2. Outcomes (of 845 employees completed or left at time of evaluation)• Overall job entry rate of 40% (more recent data states 48%) but some

variations by age:

− 32% for 16-19 year olds

− 40% for 18-24 year olds

− 45% for 25 years+

VALUE THAT THIRD SECTOR ORGANISATIONS BRING

1. Create diverse range of jobs – which helps young people to:• Learn new skills• Widen job/career aspirations• Feel that making contribution to local community

2. Provide supportive working environment• Organisational values mean committed to social and community

issues• Staff willing to help young people develop • Support often continues after end of CJS job

3. Connected within local area – which means aware of:• Local training opportunities for young people• Local employment or volunteering opportunities to progress on to

4. Third sector located across Scotland – so able to create local jobs

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BENEFITS FOR THIRD SECTOR ORGANISATIONS

1. Young people often become valuable members of the team:• Bring new ideas and energy to organisation• Bring new skills (e.g. IT and social media) to organisation• Can free up management to focus on more strategic issues

2. Other benefits for organisations include:• Opportunity to trial new project or service• Opportunity for existing members of staff to mentor or supervise

employees• Shows that organisation can ‘walk the walk’ by taking on young

unemployed people themselves

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CHALLENGES OF THIRD SECTOR APPROACHES

1. Many third sector organisations very small in size – particular issue in rural areas

• How can we best ensure that third sector organisations have the capacity to support young unemployed people?

2. Training and employability support to be provided alongside CJS jobs• But how best to deliver this across c.500 different third sector

organisations?

3. At a time of squeezed budgets and the impacts on third sector employment

• How can we best ensure that young people have progression opportunities within the sector?

4. Finally, what do private sector employers think of ‘6 month temporary jobs in third sector organisations’?

• How can we ensure that CJS jobs enhance the employability of young unemployed people?

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