News: Young People's Guarantee receives £4 million in extra funding

The Scottish Government is allocating £4 million additional funding to the Young Person's Guarantee, an initiative established to support economic recovery from the pandemic by creating work opportunities for young people.

Supporting youth employment

The funding boost is in response to uncertainties caused by the pandemic and cost of living crisis. The money will be allocated to three projects, with a focus on helping those who are care experienced and those experiencing mental health issues.

The Young Person's Guarantee was launched in November 2020 to support economic recovery from Covid-19. It acts as the Government's commitment to provide all 16-24 year olds in Scotland with a work, training, or educational opportunity.

Work partnerships, colleges and universities, school support services, and volunteering and third sector programmes have already benefited from the funding.

Since the pandemic, local authorities have received funding from the Government in addition to local funding to go towards employment support. Almost £60 million had been provided for 2022-2023, including £15 million for the Young Person's Guarantee.

The funding top-up announced this week will be shared between three programmes:

• Inspiring Scotland will receive £2.6 million towards the Our Future Now programme, which provides opportunities for young people in work placements, shadowing and interview training.
• The Young People’s Consortium (Action for Children, Barnardo’s, and Prince’s Trust) will receive £1.4 million to help young people with care experience to secure full-time employment.
• Volunteering Matters in partnership with the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) will receive £97,000 towards their work in supporting young people in Glasgow to access formal volunteering opportunities.

Jamie Hepburn, Minister for Youth Employment and Training, said:

“We want all of our young people to succeed, no matter their background or circumstances. Our aim is to ensure those seeking work have access to valuable support and opportunities for years to come.

“We know that many young people may face additional barriers to successfully gaining permanent work and the uncertainty caused by the pandemic combined with the cost of living crisis has made this more challenging. By connecting young people seeking work directly with employers we can offer them potentially life changing opportunities.”

Click here to find out more about the Young Person's Guarantee