aspect.co.uk co-founder blasts coalition plans to extend compulsory work placements for the long-ter

Will Davies - co-founder of burgeoning property management concern aspect.co.uk - blasted coalition plans today to extend compulsory work placements for the long-term unemployed.

“Nobody can argue with the early successes of voluntary work placements for the unemployed but forcing people to stack shelves in pound shops isn’t helping anyone and will bleed money out of the benefit system,” said Will Davies – who was an investment banker before creating aspect.co.uk

“The Department of Work and Pensions would have more success if it concentrated on real apprenticeships that imparted actual skills to unemployed people. The way this scheme is set up will simply leach money away to the big placement organisers and benefit contractors.”

“We have to engineer real training opportunities for the unemployed even if they are relatively short term placements,” said Mr Davies.

The Employment Minister Chris Grayling has plans to create an extension of the work placement scheme which will cost £50 million and affect 50,000 job seekers.

The story came to light when a Birmingham University geography graduate was forced to leave a voluntary placement at a museum to stack shelves in Poundland in order to keep her benefits. The graduate is now planning legal action against the government.

“The money would be better spent enlarging and publicising the Youth Contract Scheme which subsidises employers to take on young people for six months and goes someway to replace old fashioned apprenticeships,” said Mr Davies.

aspect.co.uk are currently recruiting staff to expand their £10 million per year business in London to regional cities and are planning a series of weekend ‘bootcamps’ at their London offices to introduce young people to the work ethic.

“We will select an individual from each camp to take part in a real version of the Apprentice. The winner will be rewarded by becoming an aspect.co.uk engineer and trained to industry standard in their chosen discipline,” said Mr Davies.

The DWP claims that 20% of claimants ‘signed-off’ when they were compelled to undertake work placements and a further 30% didn’t attend placements and therefore had benefits stopped.