DWP 'bootcamps' for Universal Credit 'desperate' and 'won't work'

The Department for Work and Pensions has been accused of "distracting" voters with plans for "skills bootcamps" for unemployed claimants. The DWP will unveil bootcamps to try and help get unemployed Brits into work, filling vacancies ahead of migrants.

Unison's head of social care, Gavin Edwards, commented: "There's nothing wrong with promoting social care as a career and offering proper training to try to attract new recruits to the crisis-stricken sector. But forcing the unemployed off benefits and into caring roles, while keeping pay rates low, simply won't work.

"Most people will neither want to do the jobs, nor be remotely suited to them. This latest foolish idea shows ministers are clueless about how to fix care. It's yet another desperate attempt to distract voters from years of government failure and broken promises."

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Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, added: "Any government serious about upskilling its workforce wouldn't have made 40% cuts to education. If we want to plug gaps in our labour market we need a proper skills strategy - not performative politics."

Speaking at a Jobcentre in central London, DWP minister Mel Stride announced a major new advertising campaign encouraging employers struggling with staffing shortages to tap into the specialist services and solutions their local Jobcentre can offer.

The nationwide campaign is to try to connect employers to local Jobcentres as new cross-government taskforce launched to unleash the domestic labour supply. AI work coach tools be rolled out in Jobcentres across UK to support cross-government mission, too.

Jamie Cater, Employment and Skills Lead at Make UK said: "As the number of live vacancies across UK manufacturing remains at more than 60,000, the importance of the relationships between employers in the sector and Jobcentre Plus is only growing.

"With the support of local JCPs, manufacturers are already taking opportunities like National Manufacturing Day to engage with their communities and fill vacant job roles."