Kickstart Scheme Success

A Government Kickstart scheme designed to give young people employment opportunities and help businesses in the wake of the Covid pandemic has been hailed as a success by HR Director Martin Jefkins.

J & E Hall has a proud pedigree of supporting young people through apprenticeships. The company embraced the short-term initiative wholeheartedly and has now given full-time jobs to three people involved. "We have been lucky enough to find three amazingly good people to join our team permanently. If Kickstart or something similar started again tomorrow I would be at the front of the queue," said Martin.

"It helped us to achieve some things that we would have struggled to do coming out of the back of Covid and was very good for the people that went on it. Those that went in with the right attitude and thought processes really got some good things out of it."

Kickstart provided funding for young people, aged 16-24, to join businesses on 25-hours-a-week six-month contracts.

"We initially had placements for four people and we then got approached by the Kickstart co-ordinators to take on some more because ours were doing particularly well and having a particularly good experience,” said Martin.

"As part of the placements we committed to give all the Kickstart recruits some training. They went on several courses to help with their employability going forwards, including how to write a CV, preparing for interviews, as well as other useful advice.

"Kickstart was always designed to be a short-term scheme as there was only a certain amount of funding. But it was really worthwhile for us. We really did feel like we were giving people some opportunities and experience.”

Martin said J & E Hall were delighted to be able to offer full-time jobs to three of the Kickstart youngsters. "By the very nature of the scheme none of the roles they originally went into became full-time roles. But of course, in any business things crop up and vacancies arise. Three people particularly impressed us and had a great work ethic. When opportunities came up, we were really happy to talk to them because we thought they would be a great fit for the role and the company."