A consortium of Scottish voluntary organisations was today awarded a new contract to provide thousands of jobs for young unemployed people through the UK Government’s Future Jobs Fund.

Over 200 voluntary organisations from across Scotland make up the consortium which will provide six month-long posts for 18-24 year olds who have been unemployed for nearly a year. The Future Jobs Fund, launched in the UK budget earlier this year amounts to £1 billion to help prevent a generation of young people losing out through the recession.

A key element of the programme is that the new jobs will provide community benefit. Across Scotland, communities will benefit from new jobs in social care, childcare, health, the environment, energy efficiency, sports and the arts.

The Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy announced today that there will be a total of 2838 jobs created in Scotland in the first six months of the scheme. Over a thousand of these are to be provided by charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises.

Donna McKinnon, assistant director of development and programmes at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, who coordinated the bid, said:

“We are delighted that the voluntary sector’s bid to provide thousands of opportunities through the Future Jobs Fund scheme has been successful. The Scottish voluntary sector has seized this opportunity to deliver thousands of new jobs that will make a real difference to young people’s lives, at the same time as supporting voluntary organisations and local communities.”

She added:
“We look forward to welcoming the first of the new recruits in October.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

1) SCVO is the national body representing charities, social enterprises and voluntary organisations in Scotland. The sector has 130,000 paid staff and approximately 1.3 million volunteers and manages an annual income of £4.1 billion. More information on SCVO can be found on our website at www.scvo.org.uk.

2) For more information on this event, please contact Sarah Beattie-Smith at SCVO on 0131 474 8045 or 0779 060 1995.