Celebrating Movement to Work
28 November 2017
On 27 November at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, Movement to Work held an annual celebration of their work. Movement to Work is a charitable collaboration of UK employers committed to tackling youth unemployment through high-quality work experience and vocational training opportunities for young people that are not in education, employment, or training (NEET).
Movement to Work is a collaboration between over 250 UK employers, including FTSE 100 companies and SMEs. Their employer-led approach is to provide meaningful and high-quality opportunities to some of the 800,000 young people outside of education, employment, or training in the UK. Since 2013, Movement to Work has given placement opportunities to 59,400 young people, with 54% leading to positive outcomes.
London Youth is proud to be partnered with Movement to Work through Talent Match London, a partnership of organisations testing innovative youth-led solutions to unemployment and sharing learning for social impact in London.
The young person’s keynote address was given by Ola, a graduate of a Movement to Work placement and the Talent Match London programme. Ola spoke about his experience in 2016 with a two-week work placement with British Gas (Centrica). He was very positive about his placement, noting the confidence it had given him. He praised how the placement took place at the company’s academy in Oxford, allowing the attendees to feel connected to the centre of the organisation and to gain real insight into how it operated. One of his highlights was a day spent on the road with a British Gas repair crew, during which he saw real problems being fixed and learned real skills. Ola said that British Gas had provided a positive and engaging placement that was underpinned by financial support that made it a viable option for young people. Ola ended by saying that “now I am ready to take on the big world.”
The importance of Movement to Work’s work and of the need for corporate leadership to assist young people was made clear by Ivan Menezes, incoming Movement to Work Chairman and Diageo CEO, in his keynote address. Special guests on the night included David Beckham, former England footballer, and Hannah Cockroft, Paralympic gold medallist.
We congratulate Movement to Work on another year of good work and look forward to continuing to partner with to create even more meaningful opportunities for young Londoners.
