Updates from the team behind 'Helping Londoners into Good Work'
Read what the team behind the mission on 'Helping Londoners into Good Work' have been up to. They'll regularly update this blog post with the latest news and developments.
February 2022 update: new skills programme to get Londoners into good jobs
On 31 January the Mayor launched a new approach to helping Londoners get the skills they need to get good work.
In our last update we talked about the £44m Mayor’s Academies Programme.
The programme aims to support Londoners hardest hit by the pandemic into good jobs in sectors that are key to London’s recovery.
You can now see a list of all the academies hubs.
The Mayor also launched his Skills Roadmap for London. This aims to make adult education even more accessible and relevant to Londoners, setting out the Mayor’s plans for adult education over his current term You can read the roadmap and consultation results.
New adult education awareness campaign
Unemployed or lower paid Londoners may be entitled to free training funded by the Mayor.
There’s a new campaign to make people more aware of these opportunities. Case studies of adult learning are being promoted across the Transport for London network and other locations across the city.
Talk London members have helped us shape the campaign. From March 2020 to February 2021 we ran a survey on how we use our £320m Adult Education Budget. Over 900 Londoners took part and we used the feedback when putting together our awareness campaign. Thank you to everyone who took the survey.
You can find out more about learning in London and start your journey.
Creative studio visit
Nexus Studios is an independent production and animation studio in Shoreditch. Nexus supports and champions Londoners who are underrepresented in the creative industries to get jobs.
The Mayor visited the studios and met learners who are training in a range of sectors.
You can watch a short video of the visit.
Jacy Garland, who studied at Westminster Adult Education Service and attended the visit, said:
“I studied media, film and theatrical hair and makeup. I chose this course to regain confidence within the hairdressing industry whilst gaining new skills in both hair and makeup. Becoming a parent is the best thing that ever happened to me but professionally I had lost the confidence on the shop floor and felt out of touch with the working world.
“Finding this course really helped me to get back on track and regain the confidence I needed to feel competent with all areas of my job and more. It was like therapy to refine my old skills whilst learning lots of new ones too.
“I think education is for every age – you can never stop learning.”
November 2021 update from the Helping Londoners into Good Work mission team
Raising awareness of adult learning in London
We’re planning a long-term project to make Londoners more aware of adult learning and job opportunities.
We’re getting ready to launch the campaign in January 2022. At the moment, we’re doing creative testing with Londoners who could benefit from the opportunities.
Our mission’s new Marketing Advisory Group had its first meeting to give feedback on the campaign. The group includes representatives from employers, the government and adult learning providers.
Helping Londoners into work that supports the pandemic recovery
Londoners will get help finding work in sectors that are key to London’s recovery. These are the green, creative, digital, health and hospitality sectors.
We invited organisations and projects to apply to become ‘academies hubs’. These hubs will support Londoners with training and job opportunities.
We received 31 applications. Later this year we’ll announce the successful hubs and say how Londoners can get support from the programme.
This project brings together adult education providers, employers and other key partners. It’s called the Mayor’s Academies Programme.
Read more about the Mayor’s Academies Programme.
Creative sector support
Three London boroughs will get new funding to support creative jobs and training.
In September the Mayor announced £1.3m of new investment for Creative Enterprize Zones (CEZs) in Croydon, Lambeth and Lewisham.
CEZs aim to support the creative sector and develop local skills and jobs for Londoners.
The funding will support work placements, training and mentoring for emerging creative talent. This includes Londoners hardest hit by the pandemic.
The money for these programmes is coming from City Hall, the European Social Fund and local councils.
Find out more about Creative Enterprise Zones.
More Londoners can get adult education funding
In October, the Mayor introduced changes to the Adult Education Budget (AEB) to include Londoners who are seeking asylum.
The AEB is a £330m fund for Londoners aged 19 and above. It helps them access training and education in a range of qualifications and subjects.
The Mayor has already introduced changes to help people who were affected the most by the pandemic. For example, an £11m COVID-19 response fund helps adult learning providers reach Londoners who are at risk of digital exclusion.
Now, Londoners with asylum seeker status can access full funding for skills and training opportunities. This removes a financial barrier for asylum seekers to take part in learning.
We’ll publish the new Skills Roadmap for London in January 2022. This will outline how London’s adult education opportunities will develop over this mayoral term.
Career help for young people to help with COVID recovery
In November, City Hall will establish four careers hubs across London. These will support schools and other settings to provide world-class careers education. Every state secondary school, further education college, alternative provision and special school will benefit.
The careers hub providers are:
- West London: Education Development Trust
- East London: Local London
- Central London: Reed in Partnership
- South London: South London Partnership.
There will be extra support for young people most negatively affected by the pandemic.
An £11.5m investment will help these young people into career pathways in the industries that are vital to London’s recovery. The funding comes from the Mayor of London, Careers and Enterprise Company and European Social Fund.
In the lead up to the launch, eight students and Jules Pipe, Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and Skills, visited National Grid’s London Power Tunnel Project.
Read more about London Careers Hubs.
Anchor institutions group for hiring and skills
The London Anchor Institutions Steering Committee is making progress on the commitments in the Anchor Institutions Charter.
To help with this, a Hiring and Skills Building subgroup has been set up. The group met for the first time in September.
Members include:
- the Association of Colleges
- University of London
- NHS
- Metropolitan Police Service
- Transport for London.
The group aims to use the strength of the anchor institutions to help Londoners most affected by the pandemic. It wants to:
- recruit, retain and promote them in good jobs
- encourage other institutions to do the same
- help develop training pathways that support Londoners to build the skills needed for good, long-term jobs.
Learn more about the Anchor Institutions Charter.
Keep an eye out for our emails with updates from this mission.
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The Mayor’s skills offer for London: visit to Mercato Metropolitano
On 1 September 2021 the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan visited Mercato Metropolitano (MM), a food and drinks market in Elephant Castle, to discuss his skills and training offer to unemployed and low paid Londoners as part of the Helping Londoners into Good Work mission.
As part of the Mayor’s Academy Programme, launching this year, Academies Hubs will bring together skills providers, employers and other partners to support Londoners into Good Work within priority sectors, including: digital, health , green, hospitality and the creative industries, with a focus on supporting underrepresented groups and Londoners who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
Funding has also been made available for the Mayor’s Adult Education budget (AEB) providers working within an Academy Hub to provide bespoke support that will help newly skilled Londoners into Employment in Acadamy sectors.
Mercato Metropolitano (MM) is a food and drinks market in Elephant and Castle, who support Londoners getting jobs in the hospitality industry, as well as roles in warehousing, security and management. MM is an accredited London Living Wage employer with a business model focusing on sustainability and environmental protection.
During the visit, the Mayor met learners who have recently trained in hospitality and digital sectors. Shevone Parris, who completed Mayor of London funded training at Westminster Kingsway College said:
“I started the cooking course as I was made redundant from Heathrow Airport at the end of 2020 due to the pandemic.
“The course was the most enjoyable thing I have ever done. It helped me take my cooking skills to another level increasing my knowledge and developing the art of presentation. I have learnt from this course that “You eat with your eyes”, and nothing brings people together like good food.
“Completing this course has giving me the inspiration to start my own business. I firmly believe that the culinary Skills Cooking Course at Westminster Kingsway College will help me turn my passion for cooking into a career and look forward to doing level 2.”
New webpage launched to help Londoners find skills provision
We want to make it as easy as possible for Londoners to find skills opportunities and improve their chances to get good jobs.
To coincide with the Mayor’s visit to Mercato Metropolitano, the Skills and Employment Unit has launched a new landing page to highlight our work and help connect Londoners to training and support. One of the main highlights is a Skills Map where potential learners can find training opportunities nearby or online.
Shaping London’s Adult Education over the next year
London’s Adult Education Budget (AEB) funds Londoners aged 19 and above to provide skills and learning for life and work. As well as training such as English and maths, it funds courses such as ESOL, vocational and technical qualifications and community-based learning.
Responsibility for London’s AEB was given to the Mayor in 2019, and the system is an important part of the Helping Londoners into Good Work recovery mission. Last year (2019/20 academic year) the AEB supported 424,750 Londoners
The Adult Education Roadmap is currently being developed which will set out the Mayor’s vision to create an even more accessible, impactful and locally relevant adult education system that can better serve London’s communities and economies. A consultation on the draft Roadmap closed on 8 August 2021, including feedback from Londoners directly through workshops. The final Roadmap will be published in December 2021.
Coordinating employment and training support through No Wrong Door
A No Wrong Door approach will join up local information on advice, skills and other support to help Londoner’s access good quality employment. The programme is a joint initiative between the GLA, London Councils and Job Centre Plus, and will mean that Londoners will be able to access the right type of support to gain employment, no matter what their starting point is.
Planning is currently underway for the No Wrong Door programme, and will start in the last quarter of this financial year.
Helping Londoners into Good Work
We want Londoners, particularly those impacted by the pandemic, to access good jobs with fair pay and conditions. The Mayor’s Good Work Standard has reached the milestone of having over 100 employers accredited through the campaign. Over 235,000 Londoners now work for an accredited employer, in sectors as diverse as retail, construction, transport, local government, design, media, charities, law, finance, football and social care. Workshops with fashion sector employers to help them develop their working practices took place at the Fashion District Festival on 24 September.
We have also started delivering the Good Work for All Fund, which will help support Londoners who have been hardest hit by the pandemic to gain skills. The Fund covers a broad range of provision including funding Londoners to undertake a first full level 3 qualification to help them find jobs in key sectors such as digital and green industries, health and social care and our creative and cultural sector.