JETS scheme: UK Government’s Job Entry Targeted Support employment scheme explained - and who is eligible?

Here’s who is eligible for the government’s new £238mn employment scheme - and how it works
The UK government have launched a £238m employment programme (Getty Images)The UK government have launched a £238m employment programme (Getty Images)
The UK government have launched a £238m employment programme (Getty Images)

A £238m employment programme for jobseekers has been announced by the UK government.

The government has said that the scheme will help hundreds of thousands of unemployed people, with a particular emphasis on those left without work because of the virus crisis.

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A range of help will be offered, including specialist advice on how people can move into growing sectors, as well as CV and interview coaching, said the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the scheme “will provide fresh opportunities to those that have sadly lost their jobs, to ensure that nobody is left without hope”.

How does the JETS scheme work?

Known as the Job Entry Targeted Support (JETS), the scheme is dedicated to those who have been left jobless due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The new programme will see a number of providers offer a range of help, including specialist advice on how people can move into growing sectors, as well as CV and interview coaching.

The DWP have said that the scheme will provide jobseekers with a boost as they move towards a return to work.

Jobseekers will have the opportunity to work with a personal work coach while taking advantage of a peer support system.

Sector-based work programmes will be made available to those who are being forced into a move in a different industry

To deliver the plan, DWP is recruiting an additional 13,500 Work Coaches, doubling the total number to 27,000 this financial year.

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The scheme has launched in a number of UK counties and will be introduced in Scotland in early 2021.

Who is eligible for the scheme?

All jobseekers are eligible to use the support scheme.

Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said that the scheme was mainly targeted at "adults beyond the age of 25" who can learn how their skills "can be used in different parts of the economy".

The scheme has been launched with an emphasis on helping those out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic.

How has Labour reacted?

Labour shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds was scathing of the new programme.

He said: “By the Government’s own admission at least four million people could lose their jobs during the crisis.

“All it can muster in response are piecemeal schemes and meaningless slogans.

“This new scheme offers very little new support and relies on already overstretched work coaches on the ground, while many of the new work coaches promised have yet to materialise.

“It’s too little too late again from a Government that simply can’t get a grip on this jobs crisis.”