Positive uptake of the Highland Employment Recruitment Offer (HERO) across region

Since the launch of the Highland Employment Recruitment Offer (HERO) in March 2021, there has been a positive uptake of the grant scheme across Highland as 157 applications have been approved in principle, with 73 recruited/currently being recruited.

HERO is funded by The Highland Council and the Scottish Government under the No One Left Behind and Young Person's Guarantee Funding Streams. It helps people of all work ages and with the greatest barriers to employment secure and stay in jobs.

Chair of the Economic and Infrastructure Committee, Cllr Trish Robertson said: “The Council continues to look towards recovery as staff transfer attention from helping businesses to survive to helping find new ways of working. Especially heartening is the positive uptake of the Highland Employment Recruitment Offer which shows a positive outlook from our business community.”

Members at last week’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee (5 May 2021) approved an allocation of up to £1m over financial years 2021/22 and 2022/23 from the Economic Prosperity Fund to continue to enable the grant scheme to support businesses to create new jobs for unemployed adults.