FOUNDATION for Jobs, the national award winning programme to tackle youth unemployment, has now worked with more than 2,500 young people.

The project, launched as a partnership between The Northern Echo, Darlington Borough Council and The Darlington Partnership two years ago has worked with a wide age range from primary school children to graduates struggling to find work.

To date work by Foundation for Jobs and its partners has resulted in 239 new apprenticeship places being created, the majority of which were at small firms which hadn’t recruited apprentices before.

In addition 211 young people have been able to benefit from work experience at businesses in Darlington and the surrounding area.

A key aim of Foundation for Jobs was to work with children before they had left education, with around 2,100 pupils at Darlington schools taking part in activities which bring them into contact with employers.

It has been proven that young people who have contact with industry while at school are up to five times less likely to be unemployed at the age of 25.

These have included pupils carrying out practical tasks such as computer aided design and building suspension bridges supported by industry and in a way which mimics the real life processes involved.

A Foundation for Jobs spokesman said: “Although youth unemployment continues to be a major issue not only in the North-East but in the UK and Europe as a whole we feel we have made some really good progress tackling the issue here in Darlington.

“We have not taken a short term view on tackling the problem only in the here and now, although hundreds of young people who were already looking for work have benefitted.

“What we have tried to do is also get to the root of youth unemployment by matching our school pupils ambitions with the industry sectors where the greatest number of job opportunities are set to be created in the North-East as these young people move into their late teens and early twenties.”

Working with firms to address reasons they may not previously have taken on young people we now have apprentice joiners, mechanics, business administrators, contact centre staff, plasterers, printers, media workers, restaurant staff, electricians, and a whole variety of other careers.”

A number of events aimed at building young people’s links and understanding of industry are set to take place in 2014.

In March pupils from schools across Darlington will spend a day building hovercraft at the QE Sixth Form, using their science and maths skills in a practical environment.

A project in partnership with the Middlesbrough based Digital City initiative will see pupils coached in designing a smartphone app.

A Teesside University hosted event will aim to address an issue over three areas where work experience is particularly difficult to source for school pupils - law, sports and medical related disciplines.

A group will spend a day being a jury in a trial led by law students at the university in its mock court room. A second group will carry out activities based around the university’s state of the art sports science facilities and a third group will spend the day with the university’s new specialist paramedic team.

Projects for schools based around careers in the construction and subsea engineering sectors are also set to be launched this year.