A Letter From Ingeus To A Small Business: PLEASE Take Someone From Work Programme
Originally posted here by Kate Belgrave yesterday. Reposted with permission.
Here we go then – a letter sent by work programme provider Ingeus to someone I know who owns a (very) small business. The letter just turned up in that person’s post. Looks like Ingeus touting for action – trying to get anyone it can find to “employ” young people from the government’s rubbish Youth Contract programme. I suppose this is what companies do when a “concept” is tanking – they spam away in the hope that somebody somewhere will bite. And in the hope that the press coverge will improve, I guess.
The usual Youth Contract carrot is dangled: the letter makes clear, in nice bold numbers, that £2,275 is available to employers “for every unemployed young person they recruit who is currently on the work programme.” It appears that the company has some sort of catalogue of “enthusiastic young people” from which employers can choose. Wow. Pick your own. “It won’t cost you a penny,” the letter continues. Because, you know – why should employers pay money to recruit if they can get someone to actually pay them to do it? Why shouldn’t we keep forking out for useless work programmes? Why should young people expect real, meaningful well-paid jobs?
Jesus wept. Somebody shut these tossers down and do something sensible. Please.
Same Difference 
There is nothing new in the JCP offereing companies an incentive to take unemployed people off a ‘work programme’ they also used to pay the potential employee for getting a job and keeping it for 3 or 6 months they used to do this when I worked for a company called Instant Muscle and that was 14 years ago.
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Personally I see nothing wrong in this letter.
Ingeus are only doing what they are paid to do and that is find jobs for people.
This letter is merely reminding business owners that there are incentives to give someone a job, anything that enables an opportunity for a young person to get a job, and not a MWA placement, can only be good.
There are lots of young people who want to work whether they are on the work programme or not just because a work programme provider wants to get their clients a foot in the door first doesn’t make it bad.
The recruitment process can be time consuming and costly for employers, look at Aldi recently and their 1500 applicants, so anything that saves small businesses costs is again a good thing.
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The trouble with this approach is that companies can abuse it by employing someone for the minimum level of time then getting another one leaving the first without a job and the fact they have been “let go” on their CV.
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