firms help to give unemployed a fresh start

Employers from the food and drink industry are pitching in to entice people who have been unemployed for some time back to work as part of the government's local employer partnership scheme.

Companies that have already signed up include Arla Foods, Bakkavör Group, Britvic Soft Drinks, Cumbrian Seafoods, Food Partners and Premier Foods. The programme targets those who have been without a job for all kinds of reasons, from single parents to the disabled, and it is backed by Job Centre Plus.

In food manufacturing, this would mean prospective employees would be trained in food hygiene, health and safety and employability skills. In return, the employer provides an interview for the candidate and, if they are successful, three weeks' work.

The government pays the candidate's wages for those three weeks and Job Centre Plus takes care of all their training. It also screens them and gives them a list of exactly what the employer is looking for. Should the person be taken on for that period, they could be made a permanent employee if they prove themselves suitable to the role.

"The government recognises there are three million people in the UK not working and receiving benefits," says Jack Matthews, chief executive of food and drink sector skills council Improve. "This is helping them off benefits and back to work."

Cynics might reasonably argue that the prospects would surely be slight that those taken on ended up in gainful employment that was of benefit to the companies involved. Not so, says Matthews. He claims that roughly 40% of long-term unemployed who have agreed to participate in the scheme have ended up getting a permanent job. Marks & Spencer certainly found that to be the case when it launched its Marks and Start scheme, signing up 9,500 people over a three year period as part of the government initiative.

However, Matthews does admit that workers don't all stay with the company that takes them on initially. "They might decide they don't want to work for that butcher, but they do want to work for that baker," he says. Despite that, processors will get three weeks unpaid work from someone at the very least. They get ready-made employees with minimum hassle, risk and cost.

Matthews is keen to stress the other benefits of the government scheme for companies that decide to participate. For example, the initiative qualifies as one way of tackling the dearth of recruits to the industry, he says. "There hasn't been a great take-up from the food manufacturing sector, but when people find out what it involves, they are enthusiastic. It's such a neat way of solving the skills problem."