The Hague City council is developing 1,000 minimum wage jobs for people who claim welfare benefits but have little prospect of finding work, news agency ANP said on Friday.

The aim is to give them the prospect of a better life by learning rhythm and routine and building up contacts and experience, alderman Rabin Baldewsingh said. ‘These people are ill-educated, low skilled, have no qualifications and the jobs they would have done have gone through digitalisation,’ he told ANP.

Most will work four days a week and spend one day being helped to improve their skills and job prospects. Among the jobs on offer are concierge work, helping tourists, street wardens and bike park guards, ANP said.

The project will cost ‘several million euros’ and run for three years.

The project is based on the jobs scheme set up by social affairs minister Ad Melkert in the 1990s which created thousands of minimum wage jobs for people at the bottom of the labour market.