Government promises jobs for the young

150 companies are now signed up to offer apprenticeships, work or training

With nearly a million 16 to 24-year-olds now out of work, the government's been making a big announcement about jobs for under-25s.

Under the plans, the time young unemployed people have to wait to get help is being cut.

Job seekers will now only have to hang on for 10 months, rather than a year, before getting support from the Future Jobs Fund.

Gordon Brown told Newsbeat that the government has to keep making sure that there are more opportunities available.

"The last few months have been very difficult because employers have not been taking people on," he said.

"I hope in the next few months the measures that we've brought in will provide a wider range of opportunities."

Nathan Clemence from Morrisons supermarkets says his company is expanding its training scheme for young people.

He said: "30% of our top management have got shop floor experience, so they started on the shop floor.

"You're choosing a long-term career, a long-term gig."

Apart from that there's not much new in Wednesday's announcements, made at Birmingham City football club's conference centre.

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Working life

The pressure's still on employers to offer more help, like apprenticeships.

Alan is a trainee joiner in Runcorn. He says the pay isn't amazing but it'll be worth it in the end.

"I think they're quite good," he said. "For my first year I was getting £160 a week, which isn't too bad.

"Obviously you're learning, you're getting qualifications and at the same time you're getting paid for it.

"It's something that I'll always have now. Even if I go off and do some different career, I can always just come back and do this now."

The idea is that you spend a day a week in college and then four days a week at work, then come out the other side of the economic downturn with more skills and a better job.

At the moment there's space for around 200,000 new apprentices every year. The government wants to double that in the next decade.

But apprenticeships do have their critics. Many say the idea's sound enough but there needs to be more money available to encourage young, untested workers.