From a DfEE press release:-
 
Education and Employment Secretary David Blunkett today welcomed the latest figures for the New Deal for the young unemployed which shows that 123,000 young people who had been jobless for over six months had found work.

Mr Blunkett announced that there would be a further strengthening of the advice and support offered to young people in the Gateway to the New Deal - helping to identify where they need training or help with basic skills. £3.5 million is being provided to intensify the Gateway in a number of trailblazer projects - with the view to moving young people into jobs more speedily.

Mr Blunkett said today: "This is further good news on the jobs front, following the improved employment and unemployment figures earlier in August. The New Deal is giving new hope and lasting work to tens of thousands of young people who had not found work despite being jobless for six months or more.

"August has been a good month for education and jobs. The ‘A’ level and GCSE results have both shown improvements and should contribute to improvements in our national targets which have been developed with employers. We are equipping future generations of young people for society and the world of work.

"The New Deal is equipping people for work and then getting them into work - New Deal has played its part in helping more than 123,000 young people find jobs by the end of June 1999 - over 91,000 in sustained jobs."
Today’s figures show that over 80,000 young people have received training or work experience to improve their employability by the end of June:

* 46,100 on the Full Time Education and Training option;
* 17,800 on the Voluntary Sector option and;
* 17,000 on the Environment Task Force option.

David Blunkett stressed: "A well-educated society, combined with an efficient system of enabling people to find work act together to take advantage of the dynamism in the labour market by getting the people without jobs into the jobs without people. In the last year alone over 2 ½ million vacancies were posted at Jobcentres and probably twice as many vacancies came up from other sources.

"The jobs are there. We need to match people to them. We want to build and improve upon the success of the New Deal. That is why I am announcing today the 12 New Deal ‘Trailblazers’ - areas across Britain which will be pioneering new approaches to inject even more pace and purpose into the very early stages of the New Deal.

"As these latest figures show, the New Deal is working - the numbers going into jobs tell their own story of success. But we have also listened to employers who want to see more done to develop young people who will turn up on time every day, dressed and behaving appropriately, and be able to communicate effectively with colleagues or customers.

"These so-called ‘soft’ skills, together with a positive and enthusiastic attitude to work, are often as important to potential employers as the job-specific skills which can be learnt in the workplace. We are therefore committing £3.5 million to introduce Trailblazers to try out new approaches to developing the soft skills employers want and helping more young people find jobs more quickly."

‘We want young people entering New Deal to realise that they’ve got what it takes to get a job. At the same time as intensifying the Gateway, we are toughening the sanctions regime so that the minority who "play the system" will no longer do so."