Young Londoners to get a boost as Berkeley Foundation joins with Mayor’s Fund for London to launch “Creativity Works”
Howard Lake | 28 January 2014 | Newswire
27th January 2014
Young Londoners to get a boost as Berkeley Foundation joins with Mayor’s Fund for London to launch “Creativity Works”
Young Londoners wanting to work in the multi-billion pound creative industries will be given a boost when the Berkeley Foundation and the Mayor’s Fund for London join forces to launch a new £1.5m joint youth employment initiative called “Creativity Works”. It will support 3,200 young Londoners into the creative industry over the next three years.
One in eight of all jobs in the capital (400,000) are now in the creative industries – advertising, design, publishing, music, fashion, gaming, film and TV, among others. The aim of Creativity Works is to develop specific skills and ‘on the job’ experiences for young Londoners and provide them with job and training opportunities in the creative industry they feel is most attractive to them.
Over the next three years, Creativity Works will target “NEETs” (young people not in education, employment or training) in London aged between 17 and 24 and aims to develop the skills of 360 young Londoners; inspire a further 2,400 young Londoners with “talent showcases”; and place 520 young Londoners in employment, training or further education.
Creativity Works was announced at a leadership breakfast seminar at City Hall on 21st January 2014. Guests from the public, corporate and charity sectors discussed how greater collaboration can improve the outlook for London’s young unemployed. Speakers include Kit Malthouse, London’s Deputy Mayor for Business & Enterprise; Berkeley Group MD Rob Perrins; and Baroness Stedman-Scott, chief executive of Tomorrow’s People.
Matthew Patten, CEO of the Mayor’s Fund for London, said: “London is one of the world’s greatest cultural centres bursting with creativity, innovation and dynamism. Creativity Works gives young Londoners the opportunity to develop their skills through creative industries like fashion, music, film and the performing arts to ultimately get a decent job.”
Rob Perrins, Managing Director, Berkeley Group said: “Growing new talent and helping tackle unemployment are major priorities for Berkeley. The Job Creation programme that we launched in 2013 is intended to get 250 unemployed people into work and this fantastic new partnership with the Mayor’s Fund will help 500 more.”
Twitter: #creativityworks2014. The first project planned will be in the Summer covering ‘Fashion and Design’ linking to the Jean Paul Gaultier Exhibition at The Barbican.
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Media Contact
For The Mayor’s Fund for London contact Kerry Milliken // Kevin Whitlock at Eye PR
ke***@ey***.uk
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tel: 0207 691 4232
Notes to Editors
About the Mayor’s Fund for London
The Mayor’s Fund for London’s exists to give young Londoners the skills and opportunities to get a decent job, escape the threat of poverty and play a full part in London’s future as the greatest city on Earth.
Our work focuses on three priorities:
1. Health and Well-being – Helping young Londoners to be engaged, healthy and motivated to learn
2. Skills – Extra support for core skills which employers say are absolutely essential, particularly numeracy and literacy
3. Employment – Supporting employers to create decent and sustainable career prospects for young Londoners
Hungry children in 50 London schools start the day fit and ready to learn thanks to our breakfast clubs. Our literacy and numeracy projects are helping over 5,000 young Londoners improve their reading and maths. The next 12 months will see us find over 1500 decent jobs and opportunities for young Londoners as part of our Young London Working and Tech City Stars programmes.
www.mayorsfundforlondon.org.uk
Registered charity no 1124833
About the Berkeley Foundation
1. The Berkeley Foundation was launched in 2011 and has so far committed over £3.8 million to more than 40 charities and worthy causes. It targets four key areas: homes, jobs, skills and care. Every penny given to the Foundation is spent on charitable activities.
2. Berkeley Group build homes and neighbourhoods. We focus on creating beautiful, successful places. We work together with other people to tackle the shortage of good quality homes, and we make a lasting contribution to the landscape and to the communities we help create.
3. In 2012, the Berkeley Group sustained a total of 16,000 jobs across Britain and generated £2.6 billion of economic activity in the UK.
4. The Berkeley Group is publicly-owned and listed on the London Stock Exchange as a FTSE 250 company. It was voted Britain’s Most Admired Company across all industries in 2011 and has been ranked Britain’s most sustainable major housebuilder for the last eight years in a row by the Next Generation benchmark.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.