A partnership with Elite Logistics in West Leeds has seen NEET young people given the opportunity to learn new skills and earn money in a real work environment.
The Employment Guarantee Scheme has been developed by Stewart Firth, Managing Director of Elite and one of the Board Members of Barca Leeds who has been working with Connexions Leeds Targeted Support to offer opportunities to local people in the community.
Working with the Targeted Support Locality Manager, Elite have devised a structured scheme that offers young people in West Leeds with fully paid work placements that are either office or warehouse based.
All young people accessing the scheme are offered on the job training such as manual handling courses, health and safety and IT based courses. During their placements they work as full members of the team, learning all the skills required to do the job.
As part of the scheme Elite may offer long term employment to any young person who impresses the company. This opportunity is currently available due to recent company expansion. Young people who are not offered further employment with Elite will complete their placement with an enhanced CV and having earned money while learning new skills which will help them in future employment.
To date Elite have offered employment to five young people in their warehouse and two young people in their offices. Due to company expansion an additional 100 positions have been created across the company and the job guarantee scheme will continue to be an ongoing offer to young people living in West Leeds, helping to drastically cut the NEET figures.
The success of this scheme is now being echoed in Leeds with another company called Clothing World, based in Armley, who are offering a guaranteed interview to all young people who access support through Connexions Leeds Targeted Support.
