Government's Youth Contract failing to fire

It was meant to be the solution to one of the most miserable and stubborn problems we face. For young people who can't get a job, each month without work or training makes it harder for them to find one.

The Youth Contract, with a billion pound price tag, was announced by the Deputy Prime Minister with much fanfare earlier this year.

From April, the money became available and companies were expected to start taking it up.

Firms get more than £2,000 for taking someone between the ages of 18 and 25 off the dole, after they employ them for six months.

But a survey from the EEF, the manufacturers' organisation - seen by ITV News - shows nearly six months in, many companies are far from convinced.

Of the firms surveyed, not a single one was actually taking part in the scheme.

• 32% said they had not yet heard of the Youth Contract

• 44% have heard of it but are not currently planning to take up the offer or even think about it

• 21% had heard of the scheme and are considering whether or not to take it up

Andrew Esson, who runs a hydraulics company in North Shields on Tyneside, does employ young people, using apprentices. But the Youth Contract is not for him.

Mr Esson said, "For me there's a risk' because young people who have been on the dole are 'an unknown quantity'".

He said he was not aware of the Youth Contract, and although he has regular contact with other employers in his region, he has "never heard anyone talk about the Youth Contract once," and, he said, it was "unrealistic" to expect the scheme to make a big difference.

At Thetford UK, a manufacturer in Rotherham and the first firm who have started using the scheme, John Stephenson, the HR manager told me it did make sense for them, and they may well not have taken on nine new recruits without it.

He told me the £2,000 payments would cover the National Insurance for the staff and those they had taken were all "good, polite lads".

Critically though, he said they would never have heard of the scheme if a local employment adviser from the company A4E, had not approached the company.

Many firms, he said, are just not aware of what is on offer.

Tom, 21, who is on the Youth Contract and working at Thetford, said getting the job had "made me feel good about myself again".

He told me he lost his previous post because he didn't have the right training but now, "I can provide for my family and start saving for my boys' Christmas".

But for that story to be repeated across the country many, many more firms need to sign up.

For many employers the maze of schemes on offer is also part of the problem. By the CBI's counting there are no less than a staggering 47 schemes just to deal with the problem of youth unemployment. For more businesses to engage surely a simpler system is required.

The Department for Work and Pensions will not release information on how the scheme is progressing for another few months.

They want to give it a chance to bed in before revealing how effective it is.

But tonight they told us: