As new youth unemployment (Not in Education, Employment or Training) figures highlight how those just leaving education are being hardest hit by the credit crunch, an East London charity is beating the trend and showing a model which helps young people beat the odds.

City Gateway, a Tower Hamlets based training organisation, has been working with NEET young people for over 10 years. Over the past 3 years the charity has halved the NEET rate (from 15%) in one of London's most deprived Boroughs and seen countless case studies of lives turned around. The Government has previously estimated that an average NEET person at the age of 16 will ultimately cost the tax payer £97,000, some however could cost as much as £300,000.

"We've worked with disengaged young people through the boom times and we're more determined than ever to support them now. We offer work focussed training with a level of personal support impossible in traditional education," commented CEO Eddie Stride.

"By offering a step by step progression through the organisation we ensure young people can build up trust and always have their next step in site - our partnerships with companies ensure that there are real ongoing apprenticeship opportunities awaiting them at the end."

The charity works with over 200 young people every year and was found to be an example of national best practice in a recent Ofsted survey of NEET provision. Earlier in the year David Cameron highlighted the charity in a policy speech: “I see a really important role for charities like City Gateway in Tower Hamlets, which takes young adults from local estates and trains them in the skills our economy will need in the future. They have the local knowledge, the human touch, and sensitive understanding of the complex and interconnected problems of educational failure and worklessness and I want to see more City Gateways come in, take this recession by the scruff of the neck and help get people into work."

Despite the charity’s work getting a job in the current climate remains tricky - Salima Khatun, 17, has just finished an apprenticeship and is working with City Gateway’s Job Clinic this week to try and find a permanent progression: “Finding employment is very difficult, employers are trying to save money. It is even more difficult as a young person who has no GCSE's - I am continually trying to get experience by participating and hoping the team here will help me get a job by September.”

Even in these times there are standout case studies of the difference the charity’s training and support can have. Josh Silverman, 21, turned his back on drug dealing and after a sports apprenticeship has come to become a full-time employee of the Reebok Leisure Club at Canary Wharf, “My future career and change in life is all thanks to City Gateway, they are all people who work to change the lives of young people like me for the better.”

Fatema Ferdousy, 19, had a Business Administration Diploma from college but still struggled to get a job, she took an IT apprenticeship at City Gateway and ended up getting a permanent job at BLM law, where she undertook her placement. “The relationship between the trainee and the lecturer is not a student-teacher relationship, I feel more comfortable with them and not intimidated and I can be more open too. It is better than college because I actually looked forward going in training everyday when I was a trainee there.”

City Gateway provides free training in IT, sports & customer service aimed specifically at getting young people into employment by giving them both the skills and experience they need to be ‘job ready’. The charity works with young people from a very basic level through to Apprenticeships, providing a wide framework of support and progression alongside training.