In September 2020 the Government launched its Kickstart Scheme as part of its plans for economic recovery from the pandemic. The Kickstart Scheme provides funding to employers to create jobs for 16 to 24 year olds on Universal Credit, as this age group has been the most affected by unemployment as a result of the Covid-19 UK recession. Here, Emily McEleny and Jenni Ogwuda from our partners Landsec Group detail their experience of the Kickstart Scheme and why they feel it is so vital to tackling the challenges faced by the new workforce.
Young people have been disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, with huge impacts on their mental health and wellbeing, confidence, aspirations and access to opportunities. At Landsec, part of our purpose is to create sustainable places where everyone can realise their potential, and supporting the next generation of our industry is a fundamental part of this. In particular, we want to make sure young people from our communities, who are underrepresented in our business, have pathways and opportunities for their future careers.
Kickstart has been a fantastic opportunity for us to create opportunities for young people in our business, directly responding to the challenges of Covid-19 in a meaningful way, to support young people who may be at risk of becoming long‑term unemployed. We have also worked with our industry partners to get companies across our supply chain involved in the scheme.
At the moment, we have six colleagues from the Kickstart programme working at Landsec, with more set to join us. We wanted to create opportunities in an exciting range of business areas, giving work experience to young people in roles that they may not have previously considered as part of the real estate sector. Our Kickstart cohort are based in our sustainability, innovation, customer experience, HR and insurance teams. We are also recruiting in our workspace and retail teams.
Kickstart not only gives important work experience, confidence and skills to young people as they start their careers, it also has given us a unique opportunity to welcome fantastic new colleagues into our business. It has been amazing for us to help our Kickstart cohort develop their self-belief, workplace skills and confidence, helping them to reach their potential, and we are looking forward to bringing even more young people into Landsec soon.
This is a brilliant opportunity for businesses to directly respond to the significant impact of Covid-19 on young people, and welcome fantastic new additions to your workforce.
