The Rigby Foundation partnership supports the upskilling of over 100 young people from the West Midlands

One year on from launching our £600K partnership with Generation UK, we are proud to share that more than 100 unemployed young people from the West Midlands have completed a Skills Bootcamp programme that will help them into work.

With youth unemployment across parts of the region twice the national average, our partnership is making a real difference. Bootcamps in cloud, data engineering, technology, green energy and health and social care are helping young people build in-demand skills – and this has resulted in 65% of learners securing jobs within six months, with an average starting salary of around £25K.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗯𝘆, 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗯𝘆 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝘀𝗮𝗶𝗱 “The Trustees of The Rigby Foundation are committed to helping our region’s young unemployed. Generation UK has a great track record of delivering life changing bootcamps for young people facing barriers to employment, and our funding is ensuring many more local youngsters have a chance to participate and hopefully secure a meaningful job.”

𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝗹 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗵𝗮𝗻, 𝗖𝗘𝗢 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗨𝗞, 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗱 “Unemployment is a national problem and the West Midlands has more than 130,000 unemployed people at the moment - 26,000 are between 18 and 24 years old. The challenge of getting young people into work is complicated – some groups face distinctly more barriers to employment than others. At the same time, the cost of living is soaring and social mobility has stagnated for years.

“We are committed to solving these challenges by supporting those facing barriers into life-changing and otherwise inaccessible work, through bootcamp training with wrap-around support. The Rigby Foundation funding is giving youngsters who face all sorts of barriers, a chance to build a life for themselves that is positive.”

Aside from the funding provided by The Rigby Foundation, SCC, Rigby Group’s cornerstone IT business, also supports learners by hosting employability events and offering practical advice and insights from experienced professionals.

It’s clear that our partnership with Generation is already proving a success and we look forward to seeing more young people, from the West Midlands, benefitting from this fantastic programme.

Please see recent BBC WM News piece https://vimeo.com/1095582517