Evidence library

Community Jobs Scotland (CJS) is a Scottish Government funded job creation programme that performs a dual function as: ? An employability programme providing young unemployed individuals with paid work and additional training to help them progress into sustainable employment. ? A programme to support the development of third sector organisations. The evaluation looks at Phase 2 of the CJS programme which ran from August 2012 to March 2013 (when the last jobs started). Conclusions and Recommendations CJS remains a valuable employability programme as it creates good quality and diverse job opportunities in supportive working environments for unemployed young people across all 32 of Scotland?s local authorities. Feedback from CJS employees, employers and stakeholders has been positive with recognition that changes have been made from Phase 1 that have enhanced the programme. However, all also identified improvements that can be made to the programme ? some of which could help increase the job entry rate further. Based on the findings of the evaluation, the recommendations are to: ? Engage more, smaller Third Sector organisations in CJS. ? Enhance recruitment advertising to increase number of applications to CJS jobs. ? Clarify off-the-job training offer. ? Establish a programme point of contact for CJS employees. ? Promote effective transitions to positive outcomes. ? Better integrate CJS within LEP provision.