John McDonough, founder and managing director of employability and recruitment solutions specialist Recro Consulting, has recently critiqued levels of take-up for the government’s Kickstart Scheme and insisted that more action can be done to drive up participant numbers.
McDonough’s words come at a time when the government appears to be focusing on the delivery of Kickstart as opposed to extending the initiative. Indeed, speaking at the House of Lords Youth Unemployment Committee recently, employment minister Mims Davies said: “It is important that young people are at the heart of the economic recovery. The next stage of Kickstart could write itself if we deliver this stage”.
In McDonough’s view, Davies’ emphasis on the delivery of the scheme suggests that everything possible is already being done within government with regards to driving up participant levels. Yet highlighting the fact that only 15 per cent of Kickstart vacancies are currently being filled, McDonough feels that there is still room for significant improvement.
McDonough said: “I’m not sure that the government is doing everything possible right now. Back in March, we launched our Get Ready for Kickstart scheme on DPS, aimed at young people who are interested in, or may become interested in Kickstart.
“To date we have not had one enquiry through DPS. That’s not what doing everything possible looks like. If only 15 per cent of Kickstart vacancies are being filled, then that leaves a lot more room for improvement.”
However, despite lower than ideal levels of take-up for the scheme, McDonough explained that his firm, Berkhamsted-based Recro Consulting, was in a good place to help get more young people into Kickstart roles.
“We know that Kickstart is working really well in some places and less well in others. Our team has successfully placed many young people in Kickstart roles, and we are looking to take on Kickstarters ourselves.
“More young people need to be benefiting from time-limited help, so in terms of what more can be done, many will be familiar with our flagship The Life You Want programme, which helps get the long-term unemployed into sustainable employment. When we ran three programmes for 18-to-24-year-olds across Derbyshire earlier this year, over 50 per cent of people went into work. How many other programmes consistently achieve that? I can’t name one that I have come across in 12 years.
“If the Department for Work and Pensions wants to get as many young people in, including those further away from the job market, and fill as many Kickstart roles as possible before the end of the year, working with Recro will help do that.”
Recro Consulting’s The Life You Want programme is delivered by experienced recruitment trainers with an extensive background in career coaching, outplacement, recruitment, learning and development and training. A case conferencing facility is also available for work coaches who have referred clients to the programme, as is coaching and mentoring support from the Recro team when enrolled onto Kickstart.
McDonough added: “We have already helped a number of young people from some of our other programmes go for Kickstart successfully when they have acknowledged they would not have had the confidence or ability to do so without our help.”
