Renfrewshire Council

What the work placement scheme is

Small and medium sized construction companies can apply for up to 100% of eligible salary costs to offer 16 and 17-year olds 12 months paid, full-time employment offering hands-on experience in a traditional building skill.

These skills can include:

•   Traditional Leadwork
•   Natural Roofing
•   Lime Mortar
•   Traditional Stonework
•   Sash & Case Windows
•   Traditional Plasterwork
•   Traditional Sign-painting
•   Traditional Joinery
•   Traditional Rainwater Goods
•   Traditional Pattern Making
•   Traditional Ironwork.

If there are other skills not listed here that you think could apply to this scheme, email the City Deal and Infrastructure team at th.cars2@renfrewshire.gov.uk.

Who can apply for a work placement grant

Small or medium sized construction companies can apply for the work placement grant.

A small or medium sized business has:

• fewer than 250 staff 
• a turnover of less than £25 million
• gross assets of less than £12.5 million.

Your business must demonstrate specialism in a traditional building skill and have a track record of delivering conservation standard building projects.  

Your business does not need to be based in Renfrewshire. However, any work placement needs to within a one-hour commute of Paisley, Renfrew or Erskine by public transport.

What you can use the work placement grant for

You can use the grant to cover up to 100% of eligible salary costs to employ a young person from Renfrewshire full-time for a period of 12 months.

You can use the grant for:

• up to 100% of gross salary
• employer national insurance contributions if applicable
• employer pension contributions if applicable.

You can't use it for:

• bonuses
• benefits, such as private medical cover, company car costs, employee share or equity schemes
• administration costs, such as legal or payroll.

The grant is based on a full-time work pattern of 37 hours per week. The young person must be paid at least the National Minimum Wage for their age. 

However, we will consider other alternative working hour arrangements. Contact us at th.cars2@renfrewshire.gov.uk to discuss your options.

As part of the work placement grant, you must agree to release the young person 1 day a week to complete a National Progression Award (NPA) in Construction Skills at West College Scotland.

We plan to run the course from from January to June 2022

Who can get a work placement

Our Invest in Renfrewshire team will put forward candidates for you to interview. If none of the nominated candidates are suitable, you are not obliged to make a job offer.

The candidate must be:

•     between 16 and 17 years old
•     a Renfrewshire resident
•     not in education, employment or training
•     not eligible for the government's Kickstart scheme

The work placement should give the young person varied, hands on experience of a traditional building skill in a safe working environment.

By the end of the placement, they will ideally consider an apprenticeship, progress to another college course or look for a permanent job in construction.

How to apply

Complete the application form for the Traditional Building Skills Work Placement [263KB]  and email it to the City Deal and Infrastructure team at th.cars2@renfrewshire.gov.uk, with the accompanying documents.

On your application, you'll need to tell us how the work placement will benefit a young person, your business, and the wider construction sector.

You can only make one application for a single work placement at a time. If you are awarded the grant, you cannot apply again until that work placement has finished.

Deadline for applying

The final deadline for applying has been extended to 5pm on Friday 26 November 2021.

What happens next

We will make a decision within three weeks of receiving your application.

We'll assess your application on the:

•     potential benefit a placement offers a young person 
•     the traditional building skills specialism and conservation expertise of your business
•     benefits to the wider construction sector.

You should not make a formal job offer until we have made you a formal offer of funding.

Any offer of work will be an agreement solely between your company and the young person and the relationship will be based on the contract between you as the employer and the young person as employee.

If your application is successful

If your application is successful, we will let you know and make a provisional offer of the grant.

We will confirm the grant amount after:

• the interview has taken place
• an officer from our Invest team completes a pre-placement checklist.

When you've made a job offer and it's been accepted, we will pay the grant in instalments at the end of each month that the young person is employed. This is subject to the terms and conditions of the grant being met.

The work placement must be completed and your final claim for grant payment, including all evidence and evaluations, must be submitted by Friday 31 December 2022.

More information

If you think your business would benefit and is eligible for the work placement scheme, contact the Paisley Regeneration team at th.cars2@renfrewshire.gov.uk.

The scheme is offered by Renfrewshire Council through the Paisley Townscape Heritage Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme 2 (TH.CARS2) project, which is funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic Environment Scotland and Renfrewshire Council.

 Invest in Renfrewshire will also offer additional financial support through Scottish Government's Young Person's Guarantee.