Minister’s £43m tonic to get thousands into education and work

Nov 28 2008 by Sion Barry, Western Mail

A £43M package of support to encourage the economically inactive into learning and the workplace has been unveiled by the Welsh Assembly Government.

The funding was announced by Minister for Social Justice and Local Government Dr Brian Gibbons yesterday.

Speaking at the Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA) annual conference in Cardiff, Dr Gibbons said it was envisaged the investment in two projects over three years would bring 32,000 people into the workplace and education.

The scheme will be delivered by the WCVA.

There are currently more than 400,000 people in Wales classified as being economically inactive.

Supported with £23.6m from the Convergence European Social Fund, match-funding from the Welsh Assembly Government and further funding from other organisations across Wales, both projects will focus on helping people into work through skills training and job placements.

The new £29.4m Gateway project will fund organisations of all sizes to deliver projects aimed at reaching the economically inactive.

It will support initiatives that aim to increase the skills, motivation and confidence of participants, enabling them to progress into employment. The £13.4m North West Wales Intermediate Labour Market project will provide the unemployed with “real work experience”, job search support, interview skills and personal development training for up to 12 months.

Dr Gibbons said: “In these economically difficult times it is important that we do what we can to help people find employment or undertake training and other learning.

“The voluntary and community sector have a key role to play in reaching those people who are not, or have not been, engaged with the labour market and who are, very often, not accessing mainstream services.

“These two significant projects will bring more than 32,000 economically inactive people into employment, training and learning over the next three years.”

Phil Fiander, WCVA’s director of enterprise, said: “These projects will complement the larger, more mainstream European and government provision.

“We have already seen how successful small European-funded projects can be at engaging with the people they know best at a local level.

“Now we hope to see these smaller projects linking up with each other, with larger projects and with mainstream provision, giving people the skills, knowledge and confidence to ultimately progress into the labour market.”

Latest figures show that 23.6% of the adult working age population in Wales is inactive, compared to the UK average of 21.1% – the lowest rate in the past 20 years.

The Welsh Assembly Government statistics show that there have been two main periods when inactivity rate has fallen below 25% – in the early 1990s and between 2001 and 2005.

Taking students out of the picture, the rate of economically inactive stood at 19.7%, compared to 17.5% at a UK level.

And the number of women in Wales who are economically inactive continues to be higher than men, despite that rate having halved since 1984.

The statistics provide something of a mixed message for the Assembly Government, with inactivity levels falling while remaining at a relatively high level when compared to other parts of the UK.