STORY
Severn Trent has become the latest major employer to back the Government’s Youth Guarantee, pledging to create 400 employment opportunities for young people across the East and West Midlands. The Department for Work and Pensions said the roles would be created over three years and would include six-month paid work placements across the water industry.
The Government said 25 of the opportunities each year would be ringfenced for young people with experience of being in care. The scheme is intended to support 16 to 24-year-olds into work or training and forms part of a wider package of employment and skills measures.
Skills Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith (in photo) visited Severn Trent’s training academy in Coventry to mark the announcement. Ministers said the partnership would also help address skills shortages in the water sector, where the Government said 35% of skilled jobs were currently going unfilled.