Welfare to work provider FourstaR Employment and Skills has been chosen to deliver the government’s flagship welfare to work programme in the Birmingham and Solihull area.

Beginning on 5 October and running for five years, the contract will see FourstaR Employment and Skills help people from the Birmingham and Solihull area, who have been claiming unemployment benefits for 12 months or more, to find new jobs through a combination of mentoring, skills development and job placements.

FourstaR Employment and Skills expects to employ over 250 people in the Birmingham area and will be opening four specialist Employment and Training Centres (ETCs), in Small Heath, Aston, King’s Norton and Garretts Green, from which the Flexible New Deal (FND) programme will be delivered.

Aaron Henricksen, managing director at FourstaR Employment and Skills, says: “We are delighted to be appointed as the FND provider for the Birmingham and Solihull area. An awful lot of work has gone into getting to this stage but it is very clear to us that the hard work starts now.”