The Future Jobs Fund was a UK government initiative introduced in 2009 which aimed to help long term unemployed people back into employment.
Hanta Associates was the ‘Lead Organization’ in a consortium (the Hanta Consortium) that helped deliver the ‘Future Jobs Fund’ project for the DWP over two contract cycles running from late 2009 to 2011. The consortium helped facilitate in excess of 250 FJF job-starts, a significant proportion of which eventually became long-term employment.
Over the lifetime of the projects, it was found that having companies take on the candidates initially on a trial basis was very beneficial in multiple ways. It allowed the employers to size up the prospective employees, and to get a feel for how well they would fit within their organizations. For the candidates, it allowed them to assess the suitability of the jobs relative to their skills, and to gain valuable work experience and/or up-skill. It also allowed these individuals to attain fairly credible work profiles and resumes.
The Guardian newspaper published an article in 2012 stating the Future Jobs Fund generated a net gain for the UK economy.
“Report finds Labour-backed future jobs fund made £7,750 per participant in wages, tax receipts and reduced benefits bill”
Read the full Guardian article here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/nov/23/back-to-work-scheme-gain
Reported Key findings
Numerous benefits to this approach to tackling unemployment were reported in interviews and focus groups with participants, employers and stakeholders. The FJF:
- Provided people with a real job with a real wage at a time when few were available
- Engaged employers, many of whom say they are now more likely to employ an unemployed young person or engage with future welfare to work programmes
- Moved people off long-term benefits, many of whom had been claiming for decades or had multiple barriers to employment
- Benefited communities, both in terms of the expansion of programmes serving communities and in terms of an improved sense of citizenship and cohesion
- Transferred benefits to the voluntary sector, charities and social enterprise, also engaging the private sector in some cases
- Increased the distances people were prepared to travel to work Future Jobs Fund: an independent national evaluation
- Brought together and made effective use of dynamic sub-regional partnerships
- Raised people’s career aspirations, and their levels of relevant training and qualifications
- Improved people’s health and reduced criminal behaviour.