Kickstart placements on offer as Thanet’s youth unemployment continues to be highest in South East

Job Centre

Dozens of  Thanet job placements are available under the government’s Kickstart scheme, says a local ’gateway’ company coordinating the project.

eLawyer Services  is one of the Kickstart Gateway companies locally, working alongside Kickstart Gateway and Training Limited.

A spokesman for Kickstart Gateway and Training Limited said: “This company has been appointed as a national Kickstart gateway and we are able to deal with applications for placements under the Kickstart scheme all around the UK and in all industry sectors.

“We have so far applied for over 900 placements nationwide and have had over 450 placements approved for grants to date. Many of these grants relate to placements in and around the Thanet area and there could be great opportunities for young people aged 16 to 24, who are currently out of work and receiving universal credit, to get into employment.”

Roles available include sales and marketing roles,  restaurant staff, call centre operatives, PAs and others.

The Kickstart Scheme, announced last September, provides funding to create new job placements for 16 to 24 year olds on Universal Credit who are at risk of long term unemployment. Employers of all sizes can apply for funding which covers:

  • 100% of the National Minimum Wage (or the National Living Wage depending on the age of the participant) for 25 hours per week for a total of 6 months
  • associated employer National Insurance contributions
  • employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions

From February 3, employers can apply directly to the Kickstart scheme for any number of job placements. Otherwise employers can apply through a Kickstart gateway, including those supporting sole traders.

Latest unemployment figures released this week show Thanet had 8285 benefit claimants aged 16-64 in December, amounting to 10.2% of the population. This is a +90.9% rise on the same period in 2019 and the highest rate in the county.

The unemployment rate in Kent is 6%. This is below the rate for United Kingdom (6.3%).

In December some 56,985 people were claiming unemployment benefits in Kent.

The 18-24 year old unemployment rate in Kent is 9.7%. They account for 20.6% of all unemployed people in the area. Thanet has the highest 18-24 year old unemployment rate in the South East at 16.8% – accounting for 1,670 of those aged 18-24.

Figures for December show 2,610,290 people unemployed in the UK – a rate of 6.3%. This is a 117% rise on the same period in 2019.

To make enquiries for the local Kickstart gateway email [email protected]