Skill Up Step Up campaign: You’re hired! Jobs pledged for young people helped by our appeal

Six small and medium-sized firms have become the first to pledge jobs or apprenticeships to young people who have been made work ready by our Skill Up Step Up appeal — and Sadiq Khan has backed our campaign, calling on employers to step up to the plate and “help young Londoners and our city back on its feet”.

The Mayor said: “We all have a responsibility to nurture the next generation and I congratulate the Evening Standard on their Skill Up Step Up campaign to support young Londoners to get the jobs and skills they need.”

He added: “I’m putting young people at the heart of our recovery efforts. We have just announced £11.5 million of investment in four new careers hubs and have launched a new academies programme to help young Londoners into the jobs that will help our city get back on its feet.”

With SMEs accounting for more than 80 per cent of apprenticeship starts, City Gateway, one of the charities we are funding as part of our £1 million campaign in partnership with Barclays LifeSkills, said six employers have come in with pledges to hire.

The companies are Pertemps Medical Professionals, UD Music, This is Timeless, Hidden Odds, Riot Communications and The Windrush Generation Legacy Association.

They were responding to our appeal launched in the wake of our investigation into youth unemployment in London which showed that 21 per cent of 16-24 year-olds are jobless at a time of record job vacancies of 1.2 million countrywide, a skills mismatch that our campaign is seeking to address.

Daren Reisman, Pertemps managing director, said: “We believe in young talent and want to support individuals at the start of their careers. That is why Skill Up Step Up is such a great campaign.

“It is about upskilling young people from different backgrounds in disadvantaged areas and helping fulfil their potential. We therefore pledge to take on an apprentice in 2022.”

Hazel Durrant, head of operations at UD Music, which focuses on black music culture, said: “It’s important to support local communities and under-represented young people with skills development and routes into meaningful jobs. We are therefore planning to recruit an apprentice in 2022.”

Ion Visinovschi, founder of Hidden Odds, said: “Most of these youngsters are brilliant but just didn’t have the opportunity to show it.”