Funding hopes to get 12,000 into temporary jobs

  • Wales
One in five 16-24s in Wales are unemployed, but more are getting help through training and apprenticeships Credit: ITV News Wales

£75 million of funding to create 12,000 temporary jobs for young people over the next three years has been announced by the Welsh Government today.

The 'Jobs Growth Wales' scheme aims to improve employment opportunities for people aged 16-24, by giving them paid work for six-month periods.

Young people who are considered 'job-ready', but can't find employment, will earn at least the National Minimum Wage, working 25 hours per work or more.

Rosie French tells our Business Correspondent Carole Green that she could only find short-term work as a waitress until she joined the pilot scheme at a call centre in Carmarthen.

Welsh Labour made the scheme a central part of its election manifesto last year. The First Minister, Carwyn Jones AM, says it should deliver permanent jobs and not just quick-fixes.

The Deputy Minister for Skills, Jeff Cuthbert AM, said that the scheme had enjoy a "successful" pilot, with a wide variety of large and small private sector companies from across Wales interested in taking on young people.

There will be three specific parts of the scheme, targetting graduates, micro businesses, and green jobs.