Career opportunities for young people are to be boosted by coaching and support to help them develop skills and find work.
Derbyshire County Council will provide four ‘talent match coaches’ to support up to 300 young people aged 18-24 in Bolsover, Bassetlaw, Chesterfield, and North East Derbyshire.
The move follows a successful funding bid to the Big Lottery Fund’s Talent Match programme from Sheffield City Region, a partnership of public and private sector organisations, and charity Sheffield Futures. Talent Match is a £108 million scheme to develop innovation in tackling youth unemployment.
Sheffield City Region (SCR) is one of the 21 partnerships involved in the programme, which is working to identify what action most helps youngsters find and stay in jobs.The £300,000, two-year Derbyshire programme will see four mentors appointed later this month to work alongside voluntary and community groups.
A team of 12 young people are working together on an advisory group to help shape the work being done in the four areas, which will include building on relationships with local employers.
Councillor Damien Greenhalgh, Derbyshire County Council’s Deputy Cabinet Member for Children and Younger Adults, said: “We bid to Sheffield City Region to provide the Talent Match coaching and were delighted to be successful.“A brilliant thing about this programme is that young people are involved at every stage to commission and shape the project in all their communities so their experiences and successes really count.
“That way the things that are most useful and relevant in helping youngsters find and stay in work are continued and expanded on to help even more young people like them.”
CAREER BOOST: (from left) young commissioner Katie Willis (Chesterfield), DCC Performance Officer Tracy Price, Councillor Damien Greenhalgh, Deputy Cabinet Member for Children and Young People (back), young commissioners Ashlie Shackleton (Bassetlaw), Stephen Davies (North East Derbyshire), Megan Macefield (Bolsover) DCC’s Raising Aspirations Manager Clare Talati, and young commissioner Sam Doyle (Bolsover).
