Construction Youth Trust expand their Building Opportunities programme

Construction Youth Trust expand their Building Opportunities programme further into the London boroughs of Southwark and Lewisham with the support of match funding from The Haberdashers’ Company.

Construction Youth Trust (CYT) have credited a major grant from the Haberdashers’ Company with helping CYT to reach and build relationships with new referral partners and employers in Southwark and Lewisham in the past 12 months.

As part of their grant evaluation CYT shared progress on their key project outcomes linked to their Building Opportunities intensive employability programme. This programme is specifically built for young people who are NEET (not in education, employment or training) or at-risk of becoming NEET, in order to make a successful transition into rewarding and sustainable employment, education or training (EET) outcomes.

Over the past 12 months CYT have seen an increase in the number of young people successfully progressing into meaningful and rewarding employment and gaining these EET outcomes in these two boroughs, thanks in part to a major grant of £50,000 from the Haberdashers’ Company.

“My 1-2-1s with my coach really helped me develop my employability skills – I learnt how to write a CV, job applications and received tips on how to interview”. – Brooke, Capital Projects Administrator

As well as the funding support, the Construction Youth Trust team also spoke highly of the Company for its work in adopting a Funder Plus model. This model recognises our status as a relatively small grant giver and seeks to add significant benefit to all charities supported by the Company, above and beyond the grant funding provided. The value added by the Company through the time and talent given by our members as volunteers can be of immense help in a number of ways.

Tommy Farrell, Head of Development at Construction Youth Trust, credits the Company in particular with introductions to the Haberdashers' Academies Trust South’s school team, which has enabled them to build relationships with Haberdashers' Hatcham College and Haberdashers' Borough Academy.

Since 2023, CYT have engaged 342 young people in these schools. This includes 14 students from Hatcham who attended one of CYT’s Building Future Skills programmes, delivered in the City of London in December 2023. This fantastic event supported young people to develop their networking, teamwork and communication life skills. Vitally, it also connected them to employers who will be offering apprenticeships when they finish school in 2025. CYT are continuing to work with these young people on their Pathways coaching programme in order to support their ongoing progress.

CYT also noted a valuable introduction to City & Guilds, which enabled them to secure additional funding of £14,000 for their Building Opportunities programme. CYT also hope to further utilise this relationship to access City & Guilds network of industry experts. Company member, Ted Hiscocks, has kindly offered to support them as they move this forward.