Speaking at the Conversative party conference today, Rishi Sunak promised to do whatever he can to create new opportunities for the hundreds of thousands of people facing unemployment following the end of the Job Retention Scheme.

The CJRS was introduced in March 2020 days before the first national lockdown began, following the forced closure of all non-essential businesses. It went on to pay the wages of more than 11.6 million Britons who were unable to work during the pandemic.

The new funding aims to support workers who rely on universal credit by giving them access to one-to-one support from job centres with the help of work coaches.

He also announced an extension of the JETS scheme until September 2022 in hopes of continuing to support the 800 job seekers referred to the programme every day.

The Chancellor also promised to reshape the economy around technology and scientific innovation by creating 2,000 elite AI scholarships for disadvantaged young people and doubling the number of AI Turing scholarships.

Alan Price is CEO at BrightHR. He says: “There is no doubt that those who have lost their job as a result of the pandemic are desperately in need of help. Schemes like this, providing much needed money and support, are going to have a big impact.

“Individualised support is going to be critical. With the disruption in education faced by the young, news of support for apprenticeships is welcome, as those who have had their education interrupted by COVID-19 or are faced with the prospect of a career change, are going to benefit significantly from the enhanced training that apprenticeships give.

“Statistics have also shown that older employees were more likely to be on furlough towards the end of the scheme. It is possible that those who are made redundant therefore may be older and have possibly not applied for a job for a long time. Support with job seeking skills, CV writing and interview technique are all going to be invaluable and will hopefully be included in the 1-1 support.

“These schemes target the individual. The benefit to the workplace is going to be felt in getting or growing the skills and expertise of a new employee, and the financial incentive for the apprenticeship of course will help. The complexity of navigating this support, and making sure everything is correctly in place, will be an additional burden to employers who may not have previously accessed schemes of this nature.”