After nearly a year struggling to find employment, Jason Leverett's future will look brighter as he starts his new job in Yarmouth this morning.And the 23-year-old will offer a welcome sign of hope for many of the region's unemployed people as he is the first person in the south of England to be helped back into work by the Future Jobs Fund.

After nearly a year struggling to find employment, Jason Leverett's future will look brighter as he starts his new job in Yarmouth this morning.

And the 23-year-old will offer a welcome sign of hope for many of the region's unemployed people as he is the first person in the south of England to be helped back into work by the Future Jobs Fund.

In July, Norfolk County Council announced that its bid for a share of the �1 billion Future Jobs Fund had been successful, securing funding for 356 entry-level jobs in the county, which will become available from October and give priority to people aged between 18 and 24 who have been claiming Jobseekers Allowance for six months to a year.

Mr Leverett, who lives in Gorleston, left school at 15 and started working at a nearby holiday camp, before leaving his role to study for a PC repair diploma. However except for some volunteering work and stints of manual labouring, he has struggled to find paid employment for the last year.

Today, he is starting work as a general assistant at Yarmouth-based charity First Move Furnishaid which gives advice and information to unemployed people and provides recycled furniture for people on low incomes.

He said: “I will be doing IT and general assistant work, and working in the warehouse and doing customer service. I was a volunteer here for four months first.

“I was out of work for 10 months, and working before that as a labourer. I was laid off and couldn't find anything or even get any interviews. I feel really good about this. I will be working and getting NVQ two training.”

Patricia Page, chairman of First Move Furnishaid, said: “This scheme will help us to secure the skills he brings to us, and clearly the guaranteed income will make a great difference to him.”

She said that the charity is hoping to recruit five more general assistances through the fund in the coming weeks.

Norfolk County Council has now put in bids to fund further six-month jobs from April to October next year. If these bids are successful when the next round of funding is announced, the council will have secured �6.76m to create 1,040 jobs in the county.

Brian Iles, the council's cabinet member for economic development, said: “This is a fantastic project, which is going to have a positive impact on a lot of people's lives in Norfolk.”