Community Jobs Scotland - Third Sector insights
Community Jobs Scotland (CJS) is an employability programme that funds work placements in the third sector for young people with significant barriers to the labour market to gain experience and on the job training within the third sector. It has been in operation in Scotland for a decade and is funded by the Scottish Government and run by SCVO, who have provided the data analysed in this report.
This report analyses quantitative data from 2016/17 to 2019/20 and insights from a small number of in-depth interviews of account managers to provide evidence on impact, value for money, and the lessons learnt that could be applied elsewhere. The findings suggest that the scheme has been able to help around 40% of participants to move into paid work after the placements finish, with slightly higher rates for people with disabilities.
This analysis includes some disaggregation of data by different disabilities, including learning disabilities, where rates of employment are understood to be very low on average in Scotland. After involvement in CJS, the rates of employment for people with a learning disability are in line with the average across the whole cohort and much better than in the other employability scheme for which we had broadly comparable data: Fair Start Scotland (FSS).
