Kickstart
What is Kickstart?
Kickstart provides real job placements for young people aged 16–24 currently claiming Universal Credit, to gain experience, skills, and confidence.
Funder
The Kickstart programme was launched by the Government in August 2020 to support young people in the UK that have lost jobs and opportunities because of the coronavirus pandemic.
As a Gateway, Better Connect works with employers to offer exciting opportunities for Young People.
About Kickstart
We want to create a partnership of values-based organisations that are committed to creating meaningful and inclusive placements for young people of all backgrounds, with a focus on providing genuine community benefit.
Our programme aims to create a triple legacy:
- Step-change opportunity for young people to gain relevant and enjoyable work experience in a supportive role where they are making a difference to their community.
- Promote the Voluntary, Community Sector and Social Enterprises as a career option for young people resulting in an increase in the number of young people choosing to build their career in charities and social businesses.
- Increase the capacity of Voluntary and Community organisations, Businesses and Social Enterprises and support them to further develop and embed inclusive and supportive cultures that outlive the life of this project.
Who we want to work with:
- Values-based organisations across York, North and West Yorkshire and the East Riding with supportive and empowering workplace culture.
- Organisations that make a genuine difference to their communities, whether they are in the non-profit, statutory or private sector.
- People who are passionate about being able to support a young person to make a positive first step for their future career.
- Organisations who are committed to learning and growing and want to further improve their employments practises and learn from others.
Employers will receive funding for placements of 25 hours/week on the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage depending on the young person’s age.
Better Connect are a Gateway Provider for the Kickstart programme.
As a Gateway provider, we are an intermediary between the DWP and the Employer. We work directly with the employers to create the opportunities, submit all contractual documentation to the DWP, and monitor the success of the opportunities.
As a Gateway, we are keen to create a network of employers that can learn and develop ways to best support young people in their roles.
Useful Documents & Links
Introduction Video
We ran an introduction to the programme and we recorded the session. If you missed the event then you can see it
Q & A Session
After introducing the programme we ran a Q & A session, you can view this here
Kickstart Presentation
The presentation used to introduce kickstart
Kickstart FAQ Sheet
A PDF FAQ sheet with information about the Kickstart programme