The London Borough of Hackney has partnered with the REDS10 consultancy, the Southern Housing Group and Hackney Homes to provide a sustainable training and employment pathway. The partnership identifies the skills gaps in the local area, finds people with the potential to fill the gaps, trains them up and monitors their progress.

REDS10 has undertaken skills forecasting on all of the major developments taking place across the London Borough of Hackney and carried out a training needs analysis of construction projects to understand what jobs exist within the borough. Their innovation group training model then ensures individuals remain employed for two years as they work across all live construction projects.

The programme has helped 34 year old Syma Khatun by providing a short plumbing course and an NVQ in Painting and Decorating, and she is now working as a junior plumber with a local construction company. She said: “I know it’s an unusual career for a young woman but I really enjoy it, I recently undertook some repairs in a middle aged Sri Lankan ladies home on the Stamford Hill estate. She seemed both surprised and delighted that I was doing the work, I think because I am a young woman it put her at ease.”

Tom Storey, Director of the Sustainable Solutions Division at Reds 10 said, “We want the candidates to be empowered and will support them to move from entry level roles into careers where skills gaps exist. Once they are employed, we continue to help with mentoring and personalised support in a number of areas, including debt advice, relationship building and day to day work issues.”