Feature by Shalina Hussain, East End Life, 31st August - 6th September 2009

As unemployment figures highlight how those leaving education are being hardest hit by the credit crunch, an east London charity is helping young people beat the odds as Shalina Hussain reports.

CITY Gateway training organisation has been working with young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) for more than ten years.

Over the past three years the charity has helped to cut the number of NEETs in Tower Hamlets to 7.5 per cent of young people and seen countless young people turn their lives around.

"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," said chief executive 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 sight - our partnerships with companies ensure there are real ongoing apprenticeship opportunities awaiting them at the end."

The charity works with more than 200 young people every year and was found to be an example of national best practice in a recent Ofsted survey of NEET provision.

Despite the charity's work, finding a job in the current climate remains tricky. Salima Khatun, 17, from Limehouse has just finished an apprenticeship and is attending City Gateway's job clinic to try and find a permanent job.

"Finding employment is very difficult, employers are trying to save money. It is even more difficult as a young person who has no GCSEs - I am continually trying to get experience by participating and hoping the team here will help me get a job by September."

Josh Silverman, 21, from Wapping turned his back on crime and took a sports apprenticeship which led to him becoming a full-time fitness instructor at 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."

Faterna Ferdousy, 19, from Bow 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 finding 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 to going in every day when I was a trainee there," she said.

"I know I speak for the people who went to City Gateway that it it is a training place that you can never forget and its thanks to the teachers and the assistants there; they have really made a big impression on me.

"I'd definitely recommend it to a friend, it's just a shame I didn't know about it before."

Shaal Karim, 19, took the traditional route and went to college but found it did not suit his style of learning. The only subject he enjoyed was film studies.

He said: "I worked for a whole summer in a dead-end job without a day off and that is when I knew that I had to do something to better myself.

"Then City Gateway came along, after I joined and was doing the courses I knew that I wanted to do something in media and City Gateway gave me the opportunity.

"Three months in to my apprenticeship my first ever short film was shown in Genesis Cinema, it reviewed the work of the charity Crossroads Counselling."

City Gateway provides free training in IT, sports and customer service aimed specifically at getting young people into employment.

It works with young people from a very basic level through to apprenticeships.

Anyone aged 16 to 24 who is interested in finding out more about training with City Gateway should call 3056 4061 or email admin@citygateway.org.uk