New life-changing employment opportunities for young adults

National Citizen Service (NCS) Trust and the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) have selected eight new partners with expertise in youth engagement and employment to deliver the UK Year of Service programme.  UK Year of Service is a groundbreaking national programme to support 18-24-year-olds furthest from the labour market into long-term employment.

NCS Trust and DCMS will fund the following organisations to provide 100 placements for young adults from the North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humber:

• Calico Enterprise 
• City Year UK
• EFL Trust
• Groundwork NE
• HYPE Merseyside
• Fleetwood Town Community Trust
• Flying Futures
• One Manchester

The 35-hour-per-week placements will last for nine months and participants will be paid the living wage.  Funding also includes skills training, wrap-around support within and beyond placement and support for exit routes into further education and employment.  As leaders in areas including youth skills, employability and community, the new partners bring a wide variety of placements from Youth Support Workers, through to Project Coordinators and Marketing Executives.  

The programme builds on the success of a three-year pilot which supported 336 young people in paid placements.  56% of 2021-2022 participants were on Universal Credit before joining the programme, with data from partners suggesting that over 80% of young people taking part went directly into education, employment or training following their placement.

Founded by Lord Blunkett and Stephen Greene CBE, the Founding Chair of NCS, UK Year of Service aims to address a key issue facing the UK’s employment market, which has around half a million under 25-year-olds out of work. The main barrier to young people finding employment is a lack of experience, and almost 50% of young people feel education has not properly equipped them with the skills they need to get the job they want. UK Year of Service reconciles these challenges.

Minister for Civil Society and Youth Stuart Andrew said:

“UK Year of Service offers an invaluable opportunity for 18 to 24-year-olds to be set on a positive path towards long-term employment, education or training, with over 330 having benefitted to date.

“These new partners will provide young people with brilliant opportunities to gain new skills and improve their employability. I look forward to seeing the outcome of their support.”  

Mark Gifford, CEO of NCS Trust, said:

“We are very excited to announce our new UK Year of Service partners who collectively offer a wealth of expertise in youth skills and employment in local communities.  We are proud of the UK Year of Service track record through the pilot and look forward to building on this success to support more young people to become world-ready and work-ready.”