Partner Article

TAG team floors unemployment

Unemployed young people in the region could secure a future in the health and fitness sector thanks to a new government-backed scheme.

Later this month the Transforming a Generation (TAG) initiative will be launched in Newcastle with the aim of helping young people kick start their careers.

TAG is built around a six-month programme designed to help young people who are not in education training or employment (NEETS) secure a Level 2 Health and Fitness Instructor qualification, enjoy a five month paid work placement and build a career in the health and fitness industry.

The programme is funded by the Department of Work and Pensions’ Future Job Fund and is being supported by the national health and fitness industry, comprising of private and public partnerships and will create over 30 jobs for young people in Newcastle in the next year.

Every young person on the scheme will be provided with a dedicated mentor who will work with them from the outset on a 12-month Personal Development Plan designed to help them to clarify and achieve their goals.

TAG was set up by Fred Turok its chairman who is also chairman of the FIA, the trade body for the health and fitness industry (FIA) and founder and chairman of LA Fitness.

He said: “As a nation, we are failing our young people because we’re trying to solve profound and debilitating contemporary social and economic issues with an outdated and broken model.

“What TAG has done is taken a government funded initiative, worked with potential employers to develop a training model which meets their needs and created a young people centric programme which helps them take that giant step from disenfranchised unemployment to a fulfilling, rewarding career in an industry which is primed for expansion.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .