Working For Life

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Background
The London Youth Trust (LYT) was formed from The WH Smith Memorial Hall, itself established in 1909, and constituted as a charity in 1988. From its inception the Trust has existed to “provide or assist in the provision of facilities in the interests of social welfare for education, recreation or other leisure time occupation of persons resident in Greater London who have need of such facilities by reason of their poverty or social and economic circumstances, with the object of improving the conditions of life for such persons.” Plans are now in hand to mark the Trust’s Centenary Year in 2009, and the Trust has launched its Centenary fund raising campaign.

The Trustee Board of LYT has recently conducted much work and sought far-reaching advice into where ‘provision of facilities’ is most needed in order to improve the lot of disadvantaged young people within Greater London. Evidence collected to date overwhelmingly indicates that one of the most difficult periods of a young person’s life is at the stage of leaving school, finding work experience and subsequently opting for a career path. Many falter or fail completely at this stage, especially if they live in the more socially disadvantaged areas.

Working for Life
Following this review, the Trust has combined with The Tower of London to support a skills training, work experience, apprenticeship and degree course scheme, ‘Working for Life’ (W4L). This scheme, supported wholeheartedly by the Governor, Major General Keith Cima, will allow more than 300 young people, mainly from The London Borough of Tower Hamlets (LBTH), to take part over an initial three years in programmes aimed at assisting their future employability.

Tower Hamlets is one of the most deprived areas of the country, and also has the largest percentage of 20-24 year olds of any local authority. It is a diverse community – more than 50% of the population is made up of minority ethnic groups – but experiences one of the highest rates of unemployment and lowest levels of skills in the country.

W4L will offer opportunities ranging from job-seeker training and various transitional employment programmes, through Apprenticeships and NVQ’s in Maintenance Works up to Foundation Degrees in Historic Building Restoration. All the trades or crafts on which the training will be based will form part of the Tower’s daily life, and will involve Tower employees or contractors assisting the young people where appropriate.

Budget
LYT’s involvement will help bring together funding from government and private enterprise. To ensure that the project can be fully inclusive, we need to raise an additional £500,000 from charitable sources. This is broken down as follows:

	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
Project Coordinator & Administration	£30,000	£40,000	£50,000
Support for Apprenticeships	£50,000	£104,000	£160,000
Support for other participants	£9,000	£18,000	£27,500
Other costs	£3,300	£3,500	£3,600
			TOTAL	£498,900

Already nearly £200,000 has been committed towards this target, and we are in the process of making a number of approaches to individuals, Livery Companies, trusts and foundations.

The Future
Whilst the scheme will initially be offered primarily to young people from LBTH there is, in principle, no reason why it should not subsequently be rolled out to include other Boroughs, other Historic Royal Palaces and other partners. W4L is currently in a pilot phase, but we have selected the first three Apprentices and the Foundation Degree course student, all of whom started work in September 2008. Although budgeting is currently based on a three-year project, we anticipate that it will become an ongoing scheme.

Participation in W4L
If you wish to know more about W4L, and whether you might be eligible to take part at some level in the project, please contact LYT.

Conclusion
The Trustees are committed to offering the most effective support to needy young people who are experiencing difficulties in finding a worthwhile job. It is also in this context that the Governor of the Tower sees W4L making a difference to the young people of LBTH. The London Youth Trust is keen to work with other organisations who wish to support this and similar projects within Greater London.