New London Digital Jobs & Skills Hub promotes digital opportunities to unemployed young Londoners

A new digital hub has been launched by Generation and partners as part of the Mayor’s Academies Programme to help young Londoners get life-changing jobs in London’s fast-growing and exciting tech space.

Generation is establishing and leading the exciting new London Digital Jobs and Skills Hub. Its mission is to support Londoners from disadvantaged and underserved backgrounds and those worst affected by the pandemic into good, entry-level digital jobs, backed up by significant employer demand.

The Hub, unique in London, aims to change the system. 

It brings together an amazing coalition of sector leading organisations – Youth Employment UK, Prince’s Trust, Catch 22, Multiverse, QA, BDC, and more – to significantly boost awareness and uptake of life-changing opportunities, bootcamp and apprenticeships training, and careers in the tech sector with a focus on diverse and disadvantaged young people. The project also has the support of a number of leading tech companies (you know who they are!).

The Hub aims to operate at scale, reaching several thousand Londoners and hundreds of employers over the next 2 years.

Why should young people explore digital/tech jobs?

Digital and tech jobs offer an incredible opportunity for young Londoners, especially those from the groups most affected by the pandemic seeking jobs.

They pay well 

Entry level salaries often start £22k+ and even up to £30k, with clear progression routes. The average IT salary in the UK is £48k per year.

They’re in high, growing demand

Tech jobs were 40% more in demand in June 2021 than they were in 2019. London has more digital vacancies (over 200k) than any other UK region.

Digital and tech careers offer multiple options

Digital marketing, cloud, data analytics, data engineering, software developing, IT and network support… all these career specialisations offer something different.

You don’t need a degree

Young Londoners don’t need a degree in computer science (or anything else) to get started on a rewarding career path. There are multiple routes available to all young Londoners with passion, interest and commitments. The London Digital Jobs & Skills Hub aims to connect them with tangible opportunities to take the next step.

Unemployed young Londoners can learn about training and opportunities at a tech careers showcase on 19th July 2022

Young people who are interested in tech careers can come to the London Digital Jobs & Skills Hub showcase at 19th July at Microsoft Paddington to find out more about the opportunities available.

This is a unique opportunity to learn about the different roles in the tech space, hear from partnering organisations supporting young people into the digital & tech sectors, and talk with other young people who have already made the move. The showcase will include panel discussions and interactive sessions.

How will the London Digital Jobs & Skills Hub support young Londoners into meaningful employment?

Hugh Chatfield, Head of Growth, Data and Operations at Generation: You Employed, UK, said:

“At Generation, we’re super excited to launch the London Digital Jobs and Skills Hub as part of the Mayor’s Academies Programme to support young unemployed Londoners into good tech and digital jobs with great prospects.

For the first time, the Hub brings together leading charities and training providers across London to boost awareness and promote the bootcamps, apprenticeships, skills training, mentoring and coaching support they offer through events and a one-stop shop webpage for key information.  We’re aiming to reach and support thousands on their career journeys.  The Hub also works with employers to help them better support those from diverse, disconnected and under-represented backgrounds into careers in which they can thrive.

It’s a crucial time for this work.  There are record levels of vacancies and widespread hiring challenges across employers.  Yet at the same time London’s unemployment rate sits above the national average, following a pandemic where the impact and effects of unemployment disproportionately fell on young people and particularly those from black and asian ethnic minorities.   

Generation bootcamps, and the support offered from Hub partners, have shown that carefully designed training and support interventions can achieve life-changing placement into jobs that would otherwise be inaccessible.  However, too few people know about these opportunities and so don’t benefit from them.

We’re delighted to launch the London Digital Jobs & Skills Hub with Youth Employment UK to get this work started!”

Laura-Jane Rawlings, founder and CEO of Youth Employment UK, said: 

“This is a wonderful opportunity to support the ambitions of Generation and its partners in providing the best possible support for the young people of London. We believe that the key to making a place youth-friendly is having a clear vision that everyone can buy into, joining the local actors together through quality programmes, whilst having young people take the lead in influencing and shaping what a youth-friendly digital London will be. The fact that young people across the country consistently tell us about their lack of confidence in being able to find good quality career and training opportunities where they live is compelling proof that this initiative is needed now more than ever.”

What is a Youth Friendly Place?

A Youth Friendly Place is a constituency or other defined locality where every local stakeholder (including young people, local government, educators, employers, youth organisations and parents) are committed to working together to reduce youth unemployment in their area.

Resource link

https://www.youthemployment.org.uk/london-digital-jobs-skills-hub

About Generation

Generation: You Employed, UK are a not-for-profit organisation helping to empower young people facing barriers in employment to build thriving, sustainable careers in tech and to provide employers with the highly-skilled, motivated talent they need. Their tailored programmes help to recruit, train and place unemployed young people into work. Through their unique approach they also solve a wide range of employer challenges – skilled talent shortages, poor job performance, lack of diversity, and high turnover. They have over 80 per cent job attainment and over 3,000 employee partners globally.

About Youth Employment UK

Youth Employment UK is an independent, not for profit social enterprise founded in 2012 to tackle youth unemployment. As experts on youth employment and unemployment, they are ideally placed to understand the complex landscape facing young people, educators, employers and policy makers.

Notes for editors

Press enquiries should be directed to Hugh Chatfield, Head of Growth, Data and Operations at Generation: You Employed, UK, via email: [email protected].