Thousands of long-term unemployed people are to be offered jobs in the hi-tech sector under a £50m scheme unveiled by the government yesterday.
Around 5,000 vacancies will be reserved for people out of work for longer than 18 months as well as single parents and young people on the New Deal.
Companies including IBM, Siemens, Cisco Systems, BT and Microsoft have signed up to participate in the scheme, offering jobs that will pay between £15,000 and £20,000 a year.
In return the government has agreed to pay for around 7,500 people to train in information technology skills under the scheme called, Ambition:IT.
The chancellor, Gordon Brown, said that the scheme would give hope to the long-term unemployed as well as meeting demand by employers for people with IT skills. He said the government needed to find new ways of combating skills shortages.
"In five years' time, 90% of jobs will need IT skills, compared with 70% today and just 25% in 1992," Mr Brown said. "So Ambition:IT matches unemployed men and women to the businesses that need skilled IT technicians, a demand itself that is set to rise by 25% in the next three years."
Microsoft said the new jobs would help make Britain a leader in the world's digital economy. "By targeting unemployed and other disadvantaged people it will have the added advantage of building a digitally inclusive society and releasing untapped potential which help address the UK IT skills gap," said Neil Holloway, managing director of Microsoft UK.
Other companies involved in the scheme include FI Group, Consignia, Cap Gemini, Ernst & Young, Dixons, ICL, EDS and Oracle.
The scheme will place special emphasis on high unemployment regions where there also happen to be a large number of IT vacancies. Ten areas have been short-listed for the programme including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and Cardiff, from which five will chosen to take part. The others on the list are South Yorkshire, Liverpool, Tyneside and Edinburgh.
Including other New Deal schemes, 15,000 jobless will undergo IT training over the next year.
Mr Brown said that he believed the kinds of jobs being created by the initiative would be long-term and survive the ups and downs of the economy.
The unemployed will have to undergo a new compulsory skills check, while for the 140,000 long-term unemployed there will be wider access to training and help in setting up businesses. Repeatedly refusing to take up opportunities will result in the withdrawal of benefits for up to 26 weeks.
Similar employer-led schemes will be announced in the coming weeks, focusing on the construction, hotels and hospitality and financial services industries. Hilary Cropper, chairwoman of Ambition:IT said: "We expect to break new ground by involving major firms in designing training so it prepares unemployed people for good jobs and new careers."
She said that as a result, people would be fully prepared for the jobs on offer after they had been trained. The duration of each training courses is expected to be from four to eight months.
