It's Wednesday afternoon in Washwood Heath, Birmingham and the busy high street where I am standing is buzzing. There are mothers with children outside the bakery and men in traditional Pakistani and Indian clothes chatting in groups on the street.

I'm here as part of a Young Foundation research programme looking at people's experiences of worklessness for Birmingham City Council.

The people I'm speaking with today are all part of an ‘intermediate labour market programme' where they're given part-time job placements in businesses around Birmingham, paid for by the programme, not the employer.

My first interview is with a young woman named Priya*. Priya is nervous and speaks so quietly I have to lean in to hear her. She's 25, ‘British-Bangladeshi' and lives in Washwood Heath with her Mum and 26 year-old brother. Priya is the only person in her household with a job (temporary work placement); her mother is ill and her brother is also looking for work.

Priya has an A level in Business and a vocational A-level in ICTs from a local Technical College, which she finished in 2004. Since gradating, Priya has been looking for work without success, despite taking part in numerous training schemes. She did a 13-week training course at a learning centre in Birmingham, where she gained administrative experience working at an advice and counseling centre and has also been going to several other unemployment support service centres. Priya uses these different services in hopes of finding a job, which she said will enable her to, "do something with my life, and feel important."

Priya has a number of medical conditions, including lupus and arthritis, causing her to be anxious, making work difficult, and on occasion, unbearable: "One day I can feel great, and build up my confidence, and the next day, I feel awful and it's back to square one." Priya has been placed in a 20 hours a week paid position at a doctor's office, which she said, "is the best experience I have had so far." She says she is given a lot of responsibility, and is learning how to use new computer software, to file, to interact with patients and is working on building her confidence.

Priya is clearly an intelligent young woman who has dreams and aspirations she wants to achieve. However, she lacks two of the vital qualities needed for many jobs-experience and the confidence that comes with having worked. Many of the young people we have interviewed and spoken to for this research have similar issues-a lack of experience and little confidence. Similar to Priya, many of them are also actively engaged with multiple unemployment service providers, all in hopes of finding a job. Many of these young people say there are too few jobs and too much competition for those jobs. As Priya told me, "there just aren't a lot of jobs, particularly local jobs."

But a lack of jobs isn't the only issue-the problem is often finding the right job, with a decent salary, enough hours and the security to make coming off of benefits ‘worth-it'. The intermediate labour market programme has helped to mitigate some of these issues of back to work that Priya would face, including the benefits trap. Priya earns more now then she did when she was on benefits and has been placed in a job that meets her main needs-it is part-time and within walking distance from her house, which because of her medical conditions, are important.

While Priya's experience has been positive, once her three month placement is over, she will have to go back to looking for work. But she hopes she will be more successful in looking for work after having had this opportunity.

* Name changed for privacy