Prince's Trust to offer advice on volunteering in Jobcentre Plus

Finance | Vibeka Mair | 7 Feb 2011

The Prince’s Trust will start working in Jobcentre Plus centres nationally as part of a new government partnership which will see the charity and other local voluntary organisations signpost jobseekers to volunteering and training opportunities in their area.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith unveiled the new plans today, which he said would be the “first step” in helping many unemployed people, especially the young, back into work:

"I am delighted that this partnership with the Prince’s Trust and local voluntary sector organisations across the country will mean thousands of volunteering opportunities for jobseekers,” he said. “For some it will be a chance to get some valuable experience and gain skills after years without work.”

Prince’s Trust advisers and local volunteering centres will start to appear in Jobcentres in the next few weeks, with a national rollout from April where possible.

The scheme has garnered strong support from charity sector representatives, with Citizens Advice, Volunteering England, NCVO, the National Council for Youth Voluntary Services and Acevo all welcoming the partnership.

However, Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo, says for the scheme to work it needs to be about more than just volunteering:

"We really welcome this opportunity for the sector and Jobcentre Plus to work closer together and gain a better understanding of each other, he said. “However, this needs to be more than just about volunteering – the voluntary sector delivers fantastic services with proven success at getting the hardest to reach clients back into employment.

“These agreements must recognise this and we would encourage Jobcentre Plus to actively make the space and for organisations to seize this opportunity in order to make it a real success at a time when it is most needed."

Directory: Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) | Citizens Advice | National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) | Prince's Trust | Volunteering England
Who's Who: Sir Stephen Bubb

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.