Leicestershire City Deal To Create Thousands Of Jobs

Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, and Minister for Cities, Greg Clark, have announced the Leicester and Leicestershire City Deal which will create thousands of new jobs and apprentices.

The Leicester and Leicestershire City Deal aims to halve youth unemployment by establishing the Leicester and Leicestershire 'Young Persons Pledge'. The pledge commits the area to provide all 16 to 24-year-olds with the chance to secure sustained employment, education and training and is underpinned by the Leicester and Leicestershire 'to work' programme.

The programme will:

• Establish a case work support service that will provide personalised help for young people to give them the help they need to improve their education, seek training, secure an apprenticeship or get a job.

• Set up an Employment and Apprenticeship Hub that will drive up demand in local businesses for apprenticeships, traineeships and other national employment schemes.

• Create an innovative new employment and training scheme that will help 200 young offenders into work.

• Establish local youth employment schemes that complement national programmes.

The ambitious deal will create 1,400 new jobs and 4,000 new apprenticeships and traineeships in Leicestershire. In total, the deal will unlock more than £130m of public and private sector investment.

Mr Clegg said: "We're giving Leicester the freedom, power and tools to be really innovative and design whole new ways of building a stronger economy and fairer society.

"This City Deal puts power in the hands of local people who know best what skills are needed in the area to give it a real chance of changing the fortunes of thousands of people across Leicestershire."

(CD/JP)