Before we get started you are probably wondering what is the Kickstart scheme – read on and we’ll explain.

What’s kickstart?

It’s a £2 billion scheme that has been designed to create thousands of high quality 6 month job placements for 16-24 year olds.

The Kickstart scheme is part of the Government’s plan for jobs, one of the good things about the Kickstart scheme is that it supports young people to develop new skills. These skills will help young individuals move into sustained employment after they have completed their kickstart scheme job.

The Kickstart scheme provides organisations of all different sizes across the private, public and voluntary sectors with the opportunity to access a large pool of young individuals with potential.

Once the placement has been confirmed and started the employer will be paid £1,500 per placement to support overhead costs, such as payroll, induction, leadership etc.

The funding for each placement will cover the relevant National Minimum Wage rate for 25 hours per week, plus the associated employer National Insurance contributions and employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions.

Is the kickstart scheme right for my business? 

The Kickstart scheme job placements are funded with a grant agreement. As you would expect there are rules around who grants can be paid to.

They will make checks to ensure that your organisation has been established, reputable and financially solvent.

So you are much more likely to be approved if you:

Have existed for a while
Regularly and recently submitted accounts
Have a credit score with a low risk category
Have a low probability of imminent business failure
Have enough liquid assets to pay your debts
Do not have any County Court Judgements or CCJ’s

Please note that the above factors are taken into consideration when accessing your Kickstart scheme application.

Failing on one or more of the above does not mean that you will not be approved.

Can I employ less than 30 people?

Yes, because our partner the Learning and Skills Academy is a recognised gateway on the Kickstart scheme.

They represent employers who will not employ more than 30 people through the Kickstart scheme, so they will support you whether you want just one Kickstarter or many.

Our top tips for making a successful Kickstart scheme application
Tip 1

You need to demonstrate and show that your organisation is able to provide a six-month Kickstart scheme job placement and that your company is established and financially stable.

This can be demonstrated in a number of ways please see section above for more details.

Tip 2

Your Kickstart scheme job placement must give a meaningful experience of work.

➤ What this means is that the work should be meaningful, with clear duties, responsibilities and goals.

An example would be an office administrator role, working as a member of the team with an opportunity to contribute to the wider Office’s work and learning how to use a new piece of software – this would be considered meaningful.

As a guide, a role working alone, conducting manual repetitive tasks for the majority of their working day, without the chance to learn new skills would not be considered meaningful.

Tip 3

All Kickstart scheme placement jobs should be additional jobs.

➤ Kickstart scheme job placements should not replace existing roles, or that you were intending to create without the Kickstart scheme.

This means that you cannot use the Kickstart scheme to replace a person in an existing job, or fill a role that already existed.

Tip 4

Kickstart scheme job placements should increase future chances of work.

➤ You must demonstrate that you are able to and intend to support the young person on their Kickstart scheme job placement, so that they increase their chances of finding work once their six-month placement has been completed.

A Kickstart scheme job placement should give the young person real workplace skills that will make a difference to their prospects of finding future employment.

This can include, training, the opportunity to try new tasks and build new skills, or helping them to improve existing skills.

While selecting Kickstart scheme grant recipients, the government will carry out checks to ensure that all of the above criteria are met.

Following the above tips will give you and your business the best chance of being approved for Kickstart scheme funding. 

So where do I sign up?

Our partner the Learning and Skills Academy are a recognised gateway for the Kickstart scheme and they have a dedicated website where you can apply.

Note there are other recognised gateways for the Kickstart scheme.

Or you can start your application at https://www.kickstart.support/, simply click on the ‘Apply Now’ button and fill out the application form.

This article first appeared on the Digital Future First blog see link below
https://digitalfuturefirst.co.uk/kickstart-scheme-top-4-tips-for-a-successful-application