National Enterprise Academy opens
Young people will now be able to study for brand-new qualifications in
enterprise and entrepreneurship with the opening of the National Enterprise
Academy (NEA), brainchild of Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Peter Jones
and backed by Government.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has invested up to
£9 million, matched by employers, creating a powerful partnership
which allows employers to lead and shape the skills being taught. The
NEA will enrol nearly 18,000 learners in its first five years, giving young
people and older learners the skills and confidence to become enterprising
employees or entrepreneurs in their own right.
Future Jobs Fund creates sports jobs
Young people
will have the opportunity to take up one of 2,000 sports jobs such as
coaching football, swimming and tennis under the next set of jobs being
created under the Government’s Future Jobs Fund (FJF) programme.
As part of the national Backing Young Britain campaign, this phase of the
FJF programme will create 7,500 more jobs, for a total of nearly
55,000. The new sports sector jobs will be created across England by
the National Skills Academy for Sports, offering young people the
opportunity to gain skills in coaching, leadership and sport development.
They will also encourage wider community involvement in health and fitness
including gymnastics, swimming and boxing.
Strengthening Local Democracy
This consultation explores whether local government has the powers it needs
to meet today's challenges, as part of the Government's drive to renew
Britain's democracy and build trust in the political system at all levels.
It sets out a range of proposals to promote democratic renewal and
strengthen the power and responsibility of local government by:
- giving councils more scope to scrutinise the spending and decisions of
local service providers;
- exploring whether there are barriers to using existing powers and
whether there are other powers which councils should have;
- ensuring councils have the powers and responsibilities they need to
tackle climate change;
- exploring how the powers and responsibilities of sub-regional
structures should be matched by clear and accountable leadership; and
- exploring how to articulate, develop and support the relationship
between central and local government so that respective functions are clear
and transparent to citizens.
This consultation applies to England only. It runs from 21 July 2009 to 2
October 2009.
The consultation is available on the Communities and Local Government
website here:
Strengthening local democracy: Consultation.
Keep investing in people
Help, support and investment
to get people back into work must continue, said Employment Minister Jim
Knight, as new figures published by the Office for National Statistics show
that unemployment is rising at a slower rate, following the extra help the
Government has brought in.
The number of people on Jobseeker's Allowance has gone up by 24,400 to
1.607 million. Around 70 per cent of claimants are leaving Jobseeker's
Allowance within six months. The number of people who are ILO unemployed
has risen by 210,000 on the quarter to July 2009, which is 20,000 less than
the increase in the previous quarter.
Read the full story on the Department for Work and
Pensions website.
Healey
approves cash for stalled home development
Housing Minister John Healey announced that ten stalled development
projects will receive Government funding to get building work on 740 homes
back on track.
Construction workers on the first project will be back on site from next
month, and Mr Healey has also pledged to make apprenticeship schemes
and local recruitment a condition for securing the support. The 10
housing schemes will receive over £10 million to complete the 740 new
homes.
