Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation leads the way for Kickstart participants

Youth unemployment in Letchworth has been consistently above the national average through this year. Concerned about the long-term impact this has on young people, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation applied to take part in the government initiative, the Kickstart Scheme, with a plan to employ eight young people and the aim to encourage others to also join in.

The Kickstart scheme provides funding to employers to create jobs for 16- to 24-year-olds on Universal Credit. The Heritage Foundation sought help from business support enterprise, Wenta, who have helped them to simplify and navigate the application process.

The Foundation aims to employ a further five Kickstarters in 2021.

Research and Evaluation Assistant

The Heritage Foundation base the work they do on the evidence from research we carry out. Assisting the Research and Evaluation Manager is Joshua Andrews, who came on to support the delivery and analysis of a range of surveys and data.

"I became the Research and Evaluation Assistant to work on a variety of projects and pieces of work. Currently, I am supporting Claudia’s efforts surrounding the Greenway, producing surveys, and analysing the resulting data once they come back, alongside the monitoring of grants and other work on collecting and interpreting data such as the monthly unemployment figures for Letchworth.

"Due to the broad scope of the Foundation, this role gives me the opportunity to explore a wide range of topics through my work, which not only helps to keep things interesting but is useful for me to gain a wider range of experience through my research."

Livestock Assistant

Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation also owns venues for the public to visit and enjoy, including Standalone Farm. Bethany Proctor began her role at Standalone Farm earlier this year. This role was created to support animal welfare; helping to make sure that they have fresh food, water, bedding and checking to make sure that they are healthy, but Bethany has also helped with activities at the farm. She says:

“I have helped with the activities we put on for visitors to Standalone Farm including Pig Feeding, Meet the Donkeys, Kunekune Pig Feeding and Meet the Pony. This involves making sure the public are safe, the animals are safe and happy, sharing information about the animals and answering questions.

"I am really enjoying my role as I get to work alongside a wonderful team, who are lovely to work with and have the opportunity to work with a wide variety of animals. Every day on the farm is different and I’m learning new skills all the time – it’s never boring!”

Aimed at getting young, unemployed people into work placements, the government committed to several employer benefits to facilitate this:

• 100% of the relevant national minimum wage for 25 hours a week
• The associated employer National Insurance contributions
• The employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions

So far, Wenta have facilitated over 600 Kickstart placements, with 463 DWP approvals, 138 placements have been filled.

More information on Letchworth Heritage Foundation can be found here: https://www.letchworth.com/