DWP and Fulham teaming up to tackle unemployment
Football clubs should team up with the Government and help their unemployed fans find work, Employment Minister Priti Patel said today.
The Minister issued the challenge during a visit to Fulham Football Club today, to see how their vital community outreach work is helping to score the Government’s goal of getting hard-to-reach jobseekers into employment.
Fulham Football Club Foundation and the DWP are working together with funding and support from the Premier League to help the long-term unemployed and 16-25 year olds not in education, employment or training (NEETS) build their employability skills and find permanent jobs
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The event, which was organised by the Football League Trust and hosted by Fulham at its ground, Craven Cottage, was designed to share best practice with other clubs and organisations, including Nottingham Forest, Blackburn Rovers and Charlton Athletic.
Employment Minister Priti Patel said:
“Employment is at a record high, unemployment is at a seven-year low and wages are continuing to grow, but we are not stopping there.
“Football clubs are much-loved institutions in the heart of their communities and are ideally placed to help their local fans find lasting jobs.”
“Our Jobcentres are teaming up with organisations like Fulham Football Club Foundation across the country to help people overcome barriers and move closer to employment.
“Now, I want to challenge more clubs to follow Fulham’s lead. That’s why I am supporting the Football League Trust’s push to get more clubs to develop traineeship programmes, and help us get more people into work.”The DWP is contributing £30,000 to help Fulham Football Club Foundation continue its outreach work helping people into work.
The cash, which came from the DWP’s Flexible Support Fund, is part-funding the Foundation’s Fulham Work Hub. This scheme is building on the work of My Future Goal, which for three years concentrated on helping NEETS aged 16 to 25 into work.
Fulham Work Hub, which kick-started in January, is enhancing that offer by helping older workers, lone parents and disabled jobseekers – as well as young people – the necessary skills they need to find work, after they’ve been referred by the Jobcentre Plus.
Fulham Football Club Foundation Chief Executive, Steven Day, said:
“Fulham Football Club Foundation is delighted to welcome the Employment Minister and guests from a number of football clubs to Craven Cottage today, to showcase the success of our Employability programme.
“We were generously supported by Barclays for our three-year programme which ended in January and provided exceptional results. Our new Fulham Work Hub programme is supported by the Premier League and funds from the DWP will allow us to continue to work with local unemployed young people further. This will enable us to assist participants in developing their employability skills for opportunities in education, employment or training in the future.”
The Football League Trust wants to recruit other clubs to follow Fulham’s example in supporting young people in jobs. It is about to launch a 12-week traineeship programme to help jobseekers build their employability skills in a sports’ setting with the aim of helping them into employment, an apprenticeship or fulltime education. This is being piloted in 12 clubs across England, with the aim of rolling it out to 40 clubs in 2016. Around 1,000 young people are expected to make the step into the world of work as a result of this initiative who might otherwise have fallen into the NEET category.
Football League Trust Director of Operations, Mike Evans said:
“Our network of 72 football community trusts has a strong record in delivering education and employment initiatives over many years. The unique ability of football clubs to engage young people is a huge factor in this, but it requires professional organisations such as Fulham Football Club Foundation to inspire people to fulfil their potential. We are delighted the Minister has been able to join us today to see the fantastic work that Fulham are doing to tackle unemployment and help us to roll employment programmes out throughout The Football League Trust network.”
