Whitehall has published plans to get every young person in the country to undertake 50 hours of community service to help prepare them for work. Prime minister, Gordon Brown, joined Cabinet Office minister, Liam Byrne, and schools minister, Jim Knight, on 24 April, to set out their ambitions for a massive increase in the number of 16 to 19-year-olds contributing to their local communities through voluntary service. A new programme, starting this September, will see 20,000 school-leavers a year undertake full-time community service alongside training, as part of an entry route into employment. However, Mr Brown's longer-term ambition is to get every youngster to undertake at least 50 hours of community service as he also seeks ways of developing closer ties between youths and their communities. Mr Brown said: ‘It is my ambition to create a country in which there is a clear expectation that all young people will undertake some service to their community, and where community service will become a normal part of growing up.' The three ministers announced a £146m package to fund the first wave of volunteers this autumn.