Mayor invests £11.5m to help young Londoners into high-quality careers

@LDN_PressOffice – The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is today (2 Dec) launching four Careers Hubs across the capital to give young Londoners a head start in finding great jobs and planning their futures.  

• Four Careers Hubs to be established across London, offering high quality careers education to young people
• £11.5m funding package from the Mayor of London, European Social Fund (ESF) and The Careers & Enterprise Company
• The programme will connect businesses to more than 700 schools, building bridges between education and work

The £11.5m investment, jointly funded by the Mayor, European Social Fund (ESF), and Careers and Enterprise Company, will offer support to all secondary schools, FE colleges, Alternative Provision and Special schools across the capital to develop high-quality careers education.

The programme will connect schools with employers, training providers and Further Education colleges to develop pathways for young Londoners leaving school.

The Mayor is committed to providing young people in London with access to high-quality careers education, to ensure a great start in life and a successful future. The careers hubs will build on the London Enterprise Advisor Network (LEAN), which has so far connected more than 650 business volunteers with over 600 London schools and colleges, helping them build comprehensive careers programmes that reflect the real world of work.

Young people have been heavily impacted by the pandemic. Their education was disrupted by schools moving to remote learning and many work experience programmes and job schemes for young people were interrupted. Careers education plays a vital role in supporting young people to discover the professional routes open to them, including in London’s new and emerging industries.

The Careers Hubs programme will focus support on young Londoners who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, including targeted support for students with special educational needs or disabilities, and young black men in alternative provision.

In addition to the Career Hubs,  £500K has been allocated to a project that focuses on improving Careers Education in FE colleges for students with SEND by educating and developing relationships with local SME’s.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: “I want put young people at the heart of our recovery efforts. This funding will help young Londoners identify their talents and passions as well as match their interests and skill sets with careers. High-quality careers education enables young people to explore which jobs and industries are right for them once formal education ends.

“These Careers Hubs will play a big part in helping young people find their place in the working world and ensuring they can make the most of their talents.”

Oli de Botton, the Chief Executive of The Careers & Enterprise Company, said:

“Modern, 21st century careers education for every child, no matter their background or circumstance couldn’t be more important.

“Careers Hubs play an incredibly important role in making this happen. They are helping businesses, schools, apprenticeship providers and colleges to collaborate. I want to say a huge congratulations to the team in London for setting their Careers Hubs up, so it helps to improve the lives of young people.”

Alex Burghart MP, Minister for Skills, said:

“Careers Hubs ensure young people can see and know about the huge range of different jobs and career pathways on offer, and make decisions that work best for them and their futures”

“Good careers education is such a valuable asset, so it’s fantastic to see that the Careers Hubs in London are launching, meaning more young people have the information they need to make the most of their talents.”

Career Hubs programme

The total funding for the Career Hubs is £11.5m over 3 years. The funding is provided by ESF Co funding Arrangement under

• Priority 2.2 – activities to improve the skills and education infrastructure, through activities that improve the relevance of education and training to the needs of employers and businesses.

Over the three-year period the Careers Hubs will be funded by £5.835m from the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC), matched by £3.588m from the European Social Fund (ESF) and £1.618m GLA funding.

Career Hubs are part of a national programme funded by Department of Education through the Careers & Enterprise Company.

In London they are match funded by European Social Fund and Greater London Authority.  Each Hub will match business volunteers to the schools and colleges and together will support the Career Leaders to develop and deliver a comprehensive career programme.

The quality of a school or college careers programme is  measured against  the Gatsby Benchmarks and recorded using a tool called Compass.

In London delivery partners bid to deliver a hub in each London Sub region.

The successful bids were:

• West London: Education Development Trust

• East London: Local London

• Central London: Reed in Partnership

• South London: South London Partnership