UK government creates massive national job site

Internet kiosks in pubs and shopping centres are part of the UK government's latest scheme to find jobs for the unemployed.

The government today announced plans to make its national job bank, which contains around 400,000 vacancies, available online. The Learning and Work Bank network will be available online later this year and will allow jobseekers to post their CVs online and respond to job ads.

The site will be backed by £68m from the government and an undisclosed investment from IT services giant EDS, in a public/private sector partnership. The money will be used in part to set up call centres and public kiosks.

David Blunkett, education and employment secretary, said today at the Knowledge 2000 conference: "The bank has the potential to revolutionise the labour market, by matching jobs to workers, by taking learning out into the community and, eventually, giving people access to jobs throughout Europe - all at the click of a button."

The bank will also provide details of thousands of education and training courses through a link to the existing learndirect database.

Blunkett said he expects at least 100,000 people will access the Learning and Work Bank website every day, "but the figures will rapidly increase".

Initially, people will be able to follow up job vacancies found on the website by ringing the national jobs telephone line, ES Direct.

Online recruitment is a booming industry and some providers may feel threatened by today's announcement.

A Department for Education and the Environment spokeswoman said that the site will not compete with other recruitment agencies. "We are working with recruitment agencies on this as a complementary service. Their websites will be incorporated via links on the site to increase the number of vacancies available."

In future, the bank may also carry information on local job markets, tax and benefits, links to employers' sites and will send jobseekers' CVs to relevant employers.