Gordon Brown calls for £100-a-week wage subsidy to help hire under-25s

Former Labour prime minister's proposal part of plan to prevent spike in youth unemployment

The former prime minister Gordon Brown has called for employers to be given a wage subsidy of 100 a week to hire workers under 25 as part of a plan to prevent youth unemployment exceeding levels seen in the 1980s.

Brown said 1.5 million young people would need help to find work over the next year, adding the government's 2bn "kickstart" scheme announced in the summer would not be sufficient.

Provision of quality work experience.

Training geared to new jobs, in sectors such as care, IT and logistics, jobs linked to the recovery from lab technicians and contact tracers, to care workers and teaching assistants, not training for continued unemployment.

Help with job searches - which Brown said were a vital element of getting into work, as demonstrated by Labour's 2009 future jobs fund.

A wage subsidy for employers in the order of 100 a week for six months to take a young person on full-time.