Initiative aimed at helping jobseekers back into the work.

“

The Local Employment Partnership (LEP) initiative, announced in a Government green paper earlier this year, has so far had over 100 employers commit and is in talks with more.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Peter Hain announced today that 118 employers from a range of sectors both public and private have signed up to the LEP making a commitment to offer guaranteed job interviews to those on benefits but willing to work.

Mr Hain said the strategy was to make it easier for those on benefits to get into work. “The next step is to achieve full employment as the heart of our anti-poverty strategy. Work is the way out of poverty and increasing numbers of vulnerable people, particularly lone parents recognise that and want to work. LEPs will play a key role in achieving this.

“We will ensure that people who are disadvantaged in the job market get the right type of training to get them to the point of being “job ready” getting that greater integration between skills and employment.

“Employers who sign up for LEPs will provide mentoring schemes to help people make the transition into a working environment.”

Among the latest employers to sign up to the LEP are Travelodge and vocational learning provider Carter & Carter.

Grant Hearn, Chief Executive of Travelodge, said: “We create a vacancy for a hotel manager every eight working days due to our major hotel openings programme. In response to such significant growth we have to be innovative in how we recruit and draw on the hidden talent in our local communities.”

Meanwhile Helen Richardson, Managing Director of the employability sector of Carter & Carter explained why, as a vocational training company, her firm had signed up to the LEP: “We actively employ clients from our employability programmes and have many in sustained jobs ““ we wouldn”t ask employers to take on our clients if we didn”t do so too. We are delighted to support the DWP and Jobcentre Plus in signing the jobs pledge which we consider to be a key initiative.”

Green paper sets out plans for employment partnerships

“