There were 382 fewer claimants than this time last year, a reduction of 39-per cent, including 140 fewer young people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, a reduction of 47-per cent, making it the lowest on record.

The statistics also showed that only 35 young people have claimed Jobseeker’s Allowance over six months – the lowest on record since November 2008 and a reduction of 65-per cent from this time last year.

Kaye Hannah, Employment Advisor at Cumnock Jobcentre, said: “We basically realised that young people were very isolated and lacked motivation as they were sending job applications away and not getting any replies from employers. We initially start with group Pace & Purpose sessions, which are two hour group sessions where we discuss help available and ways to motivate themselves as jobs are available. Many young people believe that there is high unemployment here, parents and families also believe it is hopeless so why try. They are always very surprised when we discuss the numbers of unemployed as they think there are competing with thousands of young people for the same jobs.

“These sessions were delivered at Yipworld. Yipworld were good enough to let us use their premises for free. Janice Hendry from Yipworld had applied for funding for employability programme for young people and we worked very closely with her employability officers for the last two years. After we had the group for Pace & Purpose session they went forward as a group to Horizons Programme with the Yipworld staff. They attended weekly as a group to get help into work, training or education. This group work seemed to make a big difference to motivation and was very successful.” Janice Hendry from Yipworld said: “I believe that, at a local level, there is a good pipeline to get more people in to work.

“There was a problem with the number of young people claiming Jobseeker’s allowance, but I honestly believe that the new regime of encouraging people in to jobs with the right support is working.” Ms Hannah added: “Having noticed the difference group work made to young people we decided to deliver the P & P sessions to 30+ customers and 50+ customers. The info sessions pass on a lot of information and can generate lively discussion. We feel as people can be asked to attend group job interviews the group work is vital to help confidence in these settings. We had also noticed that although we were referring high numbers of people to the ‘Get into’s’ Princes Trust Programmes at Dumfries House, which is on our doorstep, our people were not being selected for the programme. This made us realise we had to do preparation work to get them ready for these group selection days to secure places on the programme.

“During this time we also realised that our customer’s computer skills were limited. We approached Vibrant Communities and Ayrshire College and developed a partnership with them. Basic IT courses started in Boswell Centre Auchinleck and Netherthird Community Centre. Once this had started we developed further courses around employability. We now have Elevate which is group work over 6 weeks for over 30’s to motivate and encourage people with online work and help with CV’s etc. We also have Customer Service Training, PC passport, IT for employability, Intro to Care, Impressions, Money Mot we just keep coming up with new sessions to help customers in groups. We are now looking at Try Hospitality training for over 24’s along the same lines as the Get into training via Princes Trust.

“This group work has helped our customers prepare for work, and we are delighted to be working more closely in partnership with local employers. We are now delivering a Hospitality SBWA with the Rad Hotel group in Cumnock open day is next week. There are opportunities for 14 people to gain employment in these local hotels by end of April.” As a result of these partnerships, despite the demise of Scottish Coal, unemployment in the Cumnock area has been significantly reduced by 40-per cent over the last operational year.