This year we’re taking part in The Big Give Christmas Challenge to raise funds to help support disadvantaged young people who attend our apprenticeship and training programme.
Donations open 12:00 PM, 29 November 2022 to 12:00 PM, 6 December 2022
Running for 8 days from the 29th November, every donation made during this time will be doubled, whilst match funds last. That’s one donation, twice the impact.
Here’s how you could make a difference!
/ rewriting the story for disadvantaged young people
Last year, we saw a whopping 338% increase in demand for our courses from young people who are coming out of school without the employability skills or English and maths GCSE grades they need to achieve their ambitions.
We want to rewrite the story this year, delivering high quality Route to Employment programme to at least 400 young people aged 16-24 to overcome these barriers and break into their dream careers, so that they can reach their full potential.
/ situation
Disadvantaged young people have to overcome entrenched social, economic and racial inequalities just to get a foot on the career ladder. They’re 50% more likely to be unemployed than an advantaged peer with identical qualifications. Work placements level the playing field with industry exposure, skills and experience but traditional placements aren’t inclusive; they’re often full-time, and unpaid without childcare, and digital poverty and other challenges can make remote placements inaccessible.
/ solution
We worked with IBM to co-design an accessible remote work placement model, increasing access to employment in growth industries e.g. Digital, Tech. To overcome barriers to traditional placements 100 learners will work remotely with partner employers on flexible opportunities to ensure no learner has to be further disadvantaged to access the skills they need to reach their potential. We’ll wrap around coaching, provide a safe office space and provide them with laptops.
/ campaign aims
We’ll engage employers in the solution, working with large companies like IBM and local SMEs to secure their participation, and support them to create meaningful work placement opportunities for our disadvantaged young people leading to quality employment.
We’ll secure the laptops and headsets we need to scale to meet the demand in East London, and to do so in a way that ensures that digital poverty is not a barrier to inclusion, while providing the workspace necessary for disadvantaged young people to overcome overcrowded home environments.
We will scale our successful remote placement pilot (50% employment impact rate vs 24% sector average) to offer industry access and experience to all learners on our youth education and training programme. Placements implemented in fields like Digital, Media and Communications, Operations and Tech.
Following the placements, learners will work 121 with their coaches to reflect on their experience, recognise and talk about their achievements, to support them to achieve a sustainable employment, education or training outcome including Apprenticeships with partners like BBC, Man Group and SMEs.
