Kickstart Scheme Placements Update

18th February 2021

EAUC, Change Agents UK (CAUK) and SOS-UK are working together to support the Further and Higher Education sector create new and exciting fully-funded 6-month paid positions for 16-24 year old's this year through the government's Kickstart scheme. We are glad confirm that we can now accept new placements through the Kickstart scheme.
 
Acting as a Gateway for individual employers to access the funding, CAUK have already had 24 placements across 13 institutions approved. This means that over the course of the next 16 months of funding, we will realise a fantastic opportunity for a whole cohort of young people currently on universal credit and at risk of long-term unemployment to gain invaluable experience in creating sustainable change across the sector.
 
We believe this is an excellent opportunity to support the creation of meaningful work placements that could be transformative for young people - and will help organisations to increase diversity and bring fresh ideas in these challenging times. This could be a fantastic opportunity for your own alumni to gain access to invaluable work, and for you to gain great input from thier unique perspectives and experiences.
 
Initially, CAUK were limited to apply for funding only when we reached a total of 30+ placements at one time. However, these rules have now been relaxed and we are able to add new employers and placements to our bid at any point between now and December 2021. This means that within 4 weeks or so of telling us you would like to create a placement, we should be able to start the process of developing our vacancy and advertising your role! 
 
Kickstart placements in Higher and Further Education could include work supporting student and staff engagement programmes, communications and social media, baselining carbon and energy data, creating administrative support for larger challenging projects, or helping engaged students with campaigns and initiatives.
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The government scheme will cover 100% of the National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week, plus employer National Insurance and employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions. To help you fulfill the requirement to provide extensive career and skills development opportunities, Change Agents UK & SOS-UK will also provide a comprehensive training and peer support scheme using the government funding available for each Kickstart placement.


If you are interested to find out more about how we can support you to gain access to the funding and create an opportunity for a young person to add vital capacity to your team, please contact CAUK or find out more here.