Employment Minister Backs Tailored Support For Reading Unemployed
NEWS RELEASE from Department for Work and Pensions
Employment Minister Backs Tailored Support For Reading Unemployed
Around 224,000 unemployed people are expected to be supported through the Government’s Work Programme over the next five years across the South-East of England.
Employment Minister Chris Grayling today visited MAXIMUS, an organisation delivering the Work Programme in Reading, to find out first-hand how the Work Programme is making a difference to local jobseekers’ job prospects and to officially open the MAXIMUS Reading office.
Whilst there, he spoke with jobseekers about their employment plans and heard how the support available will be tailored to their needs.
Speaking about the Work Programme, Chris Grayling said:
“I am really impressed with the innovative back to work sessions and the positive attitude of jobseekers I met today. It shows that the new Work Programme is starting to have a positive impact on the employment prospects of thousands across the region.
“The new Work Programme is revolutionary in the way it tailors support to jobseekers’ needs and pays organisations primarily for getting people into sustained employment.
”People on out of work benefits who have previously been shunted from dole queue to training room to dole queue again will now finally be able to access tailored support.”
Bob Leach, MAXIMUS Employment & Training MD, said: “The Work Programme gives us the freedom to provide the tailored support for jobseekers in Reading to help them off benefits and back into sustainable long-term employment.
“The MAXIMUS team in Reading is already helping people secure jobs but we will keep with them to ensure they develop their careers and stay in work. The most rewarding part of our work is reinvigorating people who thought they had too many barriers to get back into employment and seeing them find jobs that are turning their lives around.”
“This programme is the first of its kind for the UK Government and we feel proud to be at the forefront of a revolutionary model that has the capacity to truly change people’s lives for the better”
