Kickstart scheme ‘is beginning to motor’

WELCOME Leader

You could not operate in the burgeoning recruitment tech world of the millennium without knowing Alan Whitford. A fellow native of Seattle, USA, as he never failed to remind me, Alan was everywhere, smiling and persistent as he fervently preached the rec tech gospel – the wise uncle to the chattering masses. His departure from this world on 8 June leaves a hole in the pantheon of personalities who took knowledge-sharing in new directions in recruitment, to the point of creating a sort of mythology around the practice and the technology that could enhance it. Godspeed “Let’s hear Alan. (See the tribute to him on p7.) what the You’ve heard about government good days to drop ‘bad plans to do long news’ stories? In the hours before England’s term about the match against Denmark, driver shortage” UK transport secretary Grant Shapps slipped in a cheeky ‘hit and run’ announcement on Twitter that the UK would relax the limit on working hours for HGV drivers for a few weeks because of supply-chain problems. Such a casual, ‘oh by the way’ approach to a serious issue. Let’s hear what the government plans to do long term about the driver shortage; at the moment, this seems just another in the ‘rush to judgement, never mind about the consequences’ series of decisions.

And some good news – see our FAST 50, compiled and analysed for Recruiter by Clearwater International, for recruitment companies breaking the bonds of earth to soar!

DeeDee Doke, Editor

Kickstart scheme ‘motoring’ says employment minister Davies

BY DEEDEE DOKE

THE UK GOVERNMENT’S youth employment Kickstart Scheme is

“really beginning to motor”, placing “around 400” young people per day into new roles, employment minister Mims Davies has told

Recruiter. Davies’ optimism comes in the face of concerns from recruitment’s leading trade bodies that the initiative is not generating the anticipated take-up by its intended benefi ciaries, leaving thousands of vacancies on off er unfi lled. Th e Department of Work and Pension has approved more than 219,000 roles for the scheme launched last September, and there are currently over 100,000 positions available for six months for 16-to-24-year-olds on Universal Credit who are at risk of long-term unemployment. “Actually, Kickstart has managed to get those fresh faces and voices into new sectors,