The move comes in order to help the staffing sector to support young people in building their careers, according to an APSCo statement.

Kickstart – part of the government’s Plan for Jobs scheme – is intended to create thousands of new, fully subsidised jobs of up to 25 hours per week to support people aged 18 to 24 into employment in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic. However, to be eligible for the support, an employer must create at least 30 new job placements.

To provide staffing companies with access to the scheme, APSCo has collated vacancies from a number of its members and submitted them to the government, the statement said. The roles include resourcers, CV administrators, trainee consultants and digital marketers.

“We want all our members, irrespective of size to be able to get involved with the scheme,” said APSCo CEO Ann Swain, “and so we felt it important to offer to facilitate members who wanted to get involved but who just didn’t have the vacancy numbers to be able to participate… we have also put together a training package for each young person on placement at a hugely subsidised rate with modules aligned to the placements on offer.

“The first tranche of applications has already been made, and I’m extremely pleased to see so many of our members getting involved.”

First placements are expected to take place in November. “There has been so much interest that APSCo is now working on the next tranche of vacancies for a further applications by the end of the year,” the APSCo statement said.

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