Good Idea: Hackney young people take first steps onto jobs ladder

Name: Hackney 100

Provider: Hackney Council

From September, dozens of businesses in one of the most deprived boroughs of London will employ disadvantaged 16- and 17-year-olds as part of a new employability scheme developed by Hackney Council.

The Hackney 100 initiative will see 100 young people offered paid placements with a range of local employers, including those in the technology, media and hospitality sectors, for a minimum six-month period. The type of jobs on offer are still to be decided by the businesses taking part in the scheme.

Each of the businesses has agreed to pay each young person the London living wage of £8.80 an hour - an independent rate set annually by the Centre for Research and Policy at Loughborough University on behalf of the Living Wage Foundation - in return for four hours of work a week outside of the school day.

The council will target potential participants through schools and its existing Ways into Work programme, but they will all be required to undergo a formal application and interview process before they are accepted onto a placement.

The programme was developed after the council identified a shortage of after-school and weekend jobs for young people living in the borough, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

In addition, the authority noticed a lack of the skills often valued by employers, such as punctuality and resilience, among 16- to 17-year-olds using its Ways into Work programme.

"One of the things that became clear to us was that these young people's experience of work was almost non-existent," explains Alan Wood, director of children's services at Hackney.

The aim of the programme is to equip young people with the skills to find work and have successful careers in the future.

Jules Pipe, mayor of Hackney, says it is important to embed the culture of paid work within young people while they are still in education. "Young people can't just get to 16 or go onto further education without being introduced to the world of work but there's the idea that this is a normal thing to do," he says.

"Hackney 100 is 16- and 17-year-olds getting their feet on the career ladder with local businesses and getting something on their CV."

Wood, who is also president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services, shares a similar view: "We need to provide support to put young people and local employers together in a thought-through way that gives them confidence to do this sort of thing."

Expectation of hard work

Anthony Impey, chief executive of Optimity, is one of the employers taking part in the scheme and attended its launch recently at Urswick Secondary School. He says the young people involved in the initiative will be required to work hard, as any other employee would be expected to.

"It will be hard work and they will be expected to pull their weight and earn their money," he says.

"This is about teaching young people what it means to go to work, do a job and earn a wage, and the responsibility that comes with that, as well as giving them valuable exposure to an exciting work environment."

Initially, the council hopes to work with businesses to deliver the scheme for a year, and will evaluate its progress next July before deciding whether to extend it.

However, Wood hopes that, if the initiative is successful, it will be adopted by other councils and trigger widespread change in the way they work with young people looking for work.

"We're hoping that it's a catalyst in the system," he says. "We hope that it will lead to other people feeling more confident about doing it themselves."