£5-bn white-collar employment initiative to be announced in the UK today

The UK government's Work Programme due to be launched today, is aimed at creating new white-collar jobs for out-of work British graduates.

The new initiative specifically targets those on long term unemployment benefits.

Billed as 'the most ambitious back to work programme this country has ever seen', the Conservative government hopes, it will bring to an end a persistent problem through the provision of quality vocational initiatives.

Currently, the UK has 2.4 million people unemployed, while businesses are starting to recruit but are finding it hard to find employess - fuelling fears of 'lost generations' in Britain.

The National Employer Skills Survey (NESS) reveals that 19 per cent of all reported financial services vacancies were 'hard to fill' vacancies - with skills issues identified as the most common problem.

''Behind the figures, lies a diverse range of individuals - graduates who cannot get a job, people who have fallen out of the education system at 16, and those who lost work during the recession or crossing over from the public sector,'' says Says Liz Field, CEO of the Financial Skills Partnership, one of the UK's most influential thought leaders, helping the financial services sector open its doors to a diverse talent pool of candidates and helping them into sustainable employment through a range of vocational placements and network initiatives