Over 50s still the Cinderellas when it comes to support

A lavish government mentoring scheme has kicked off today with expensive ads in many newspapers. For a change it’s not just spin – over 150 major companies are backing the plan to get unemployed people into work with the support of their own mentor. There is only one problem – you have to be aged under 25 to benefit.

The scheme is the latest stage of Backing Young Britain, an even larger campaign launched back in July. Initially the emphasis was on apprenticeships, work experience and internships.

The mentoring offer has only just kicked off. The main money is coming from the Department for Work and Pensions. Companies contribute volunteer mentors, who get trained for free at taxpayers’ expense.

So it’s a well-thought-out scheme. Shame there’s nothing similar for older people.

Meanwhile here at PRIME we are starting our own more modest mentoring scheme for older people thinking about going into self-employment. These programmes do cost something to run even with volunteers as you need to vet and train the mentors, and then publicise what you are doing so the right people get to hear about it.

Fortunately as a charity we’re not completely without supporters. As yet we haven’t quite managed to get 150 organisations on board to back the mentoring project, but we have got two. Bank of America Charitable Foundation is providing the money and HMRC are first in with a team of volunteers.

Bristol is the first city to go live. We’ll be adding two more later this month.

If you want more details about getting mentoring support for yourself then contact PRIME’s Mentoring Manager Harri Harrison at harri.harrison@ace.org.uk . He’s also your man if you are an organisation that has some volunteer mentors to offer.

Get yourself a PRIME mentor in Bristol

If you're new here, you may also want to visit our main web site PRIME Business Club where we provide lots of practical information to support clients.

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