After what we felt was far too long an interval between the initial announcement introducing the concept of traineeships and hearing anything more about them, we're pleased to note that the ball appears to have started rolling for real now.
Traineeships, you'll remember, are being put into place this autumn to help 16-19-year-olds prepare for work or an apprenticeship by giving them training in employability skills, basic English and math and work experience placements.
And although we haven't heard much about them for a while, now, the Head of Funding for Pre-Employment at the Skills Funding Agency, Sara Tulk said at a recent conference: “It’s very unusual to have a policy move to implementation so quickly. To say that lots has been going on behind the scenes to get us to this point is a slight understatement”.
However, in certain other areas things might be moving a little more slowly than perhaps they should: it's that thorny old question about traineeships and jobseeker's allowance. As things stand, if you're doing more than 16 hours training a week, JSA rules say you don't get your benefit.
A bit of a quandary there, because if you're claiming and you take up a traineeship, it looks like you'll be losing out.
Currently, according to Jim Patrick of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), that JSA rule will still be enforced, but it wouldn't apply once the new Universal Credit scheme starts.
At present, though, the DWP are trying to relax that sixteen hours a week rule. They've been talking to the Treasury about that for a while now ... and we hope they'll have sorted things out before the official launch in September.
