What is the Kickstart Scheme?

In response to growing youth unemployment, the UK Government has committed £2bn to the Kickstart Scheme. This is funding the creation of hundreds of thousands of 6-month job placements for young people aged 16-24. 

Kickstart Scheme for Employers

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) provides funding for each job placement offered by Employers. This covers the National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week, plus associated employer NI contributions and employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions. 

There will also be funding available to support young people to develop new skills and to help them move into sustained employment after they have completed their Kickstart-funded job.

Through the scheme, you’ll be able to access a large pool of young people with potential, ready for an opportunity.

Work with us

Groundwork London has over 25 years experience in providing employment support and guidance to young people and employers. We also have had great success in bringing staff members into our long-term workforce through similar subsidised employment programmes, such as ACE and OBF

We are delighted to be a Gateway Provider for the Kickstart scheme, and to be able to offer our expertise and support to up to 100 smaller organisations across London in creating job placements for over 500 young people, between now and December 2021. 

We are particularly interested in working with organisations whose missions are to:

  • Support individuals and communities to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Green the capital through: Creating and improving green spaces; increasing the resilience of our infrastructure to climate changes; boosting reuse and reducing waste; and saving energy and water.

How we’ll support Employers

We will work with you to complete all DWP requirements and liaise directly with local Job Centres to promote the roles you are offering, including all recruitment needs such as pre-screening and interviews. 

Once in the role we will continue to support both you and the young person to ensure that the placement is a success. This includes any mediation and HR support, helping arrange alternative work patterns due to COVID-19 restrictions, and weekly ‘well-being’ calls for the first month on placement, followed by monthly thereafter.

If you are interested in taking part in the scheme and want to find out how we can support you, please get in touch with us by emailing Gwl.Kickstart@Groundwork.org.uk or calling 07809 202 551.

Together we can make a real difference to the lives of local young people.

Kickstart Scheme for Young People – here at Groundwork London

In addition to our role as a Gateway Organisation for the scheme, we are also creating 100 job placements for young people at Groundwork London. We are currently in the process of bringing young people into trainee horticultural roles in our Green Teams, trainee bicycle mechanic roles in our Westminster Wheels project, and trainee appliance engineer positions at our ReWork facility. Over the next year we will be offering many other opportunities to young people across the wide breadth of our London programmes. 

If you’re interested in a Kickstart placement here at Groundwork London, please take a look at our current vacancies via the link below. For further information please do get in touch with us at Gwl.Kickstart@Groundwork.org.uk or 07809 202 551.

Current role vacancies on the Kickstart Scheme

Take a look at our current vacancies, both with our partner organisations and here at Groundwork London.