What we need next is job creation, training and hiring

Some newly unemployed people may not have had to seek work for many years. They will need help identifying their transferable skills and looking for vacancies in a digitised environment, as well as the practical tasks of putting together a CV, writing applications and preparing for interviews.

The Chancellor’s announcement of funding for a job search support scheme is welcome. The important thing is to move fast and to use the unparalleled expertise of the UK’s recruitment businesses to help.

Recruiters are jobs experts who are already supporting people with core employability skills on a daily basis. We will see massive demand for these services in the coming months, and a real partnership with the recruitment industry would mean this support could be expanded quickly to meet it.

Using the nation’s network of local and sector jobs specialists to deliver this scheme makes sense – better harnessing the genius of all our businesses than doing it from one big call centre.

But it is about more than matching and interview support. Growing areas need different skills.

The Government’s record in supporting skills development is patchy, at best. Too much of the provision has been designed in Whitehall, not the workplace. As an example, the failing Apprenticeship Levy has caused a fall in new starts, not a rise. But business discontent on this isn’t about paying the levy – it’s about making sure they are buying what workers and companies need.