April 2015 – June 2016

Routes Into Construction from the

Construction Youth Trust:

Getting Young People into Work

End of Project Report by; Paul Taylor, Employer Engagement Co-ordinator, Construction Youth Trust

Table of Contents –30th June 2016

April 2015 – June 2016

1. Description of Project

2. Major Achievements

3. Were any of the achievements not met?

4. What lessons have been learned?

5. What partners did you work with?

Annex 1 – Young People Success Stories

Annex 2 – Report to JIP Steering Group on Low Placement Levels 11th November 2015

Annex 3 – JIP Exit Report

30th June 2016

April 2015 – June 2016

1. Description of Project

In February 2015 the CITB and the London Enterprise Panel (LEP) announced the Greater London Joint Initiative programme. Part of a national programme to invest in construction programmes in cities across the UK, the Joint Initiative consisted of several separate projects, each targeted on helping disadvantaged groups of people to engage with the Construction Industry.One of the Joint Initiative projects was aimed at helping the young unemployed of London into work in the Construction Industry. This project was Routes Into Construction.Routes Into Construction was a partnership between the Construction Youth Trust and London Youth to deliver work experience placements in the construction industry to the young unemployed (16-24), with a route into paid employment. The project required the Trust to work closely with - Construction employers; the industry recognises that the demographic profile of its

workforce is aging, and that young people are not entering the sector in enough number. Employers also struggle to meet local labour recruitment requirements put on them by the boroughs (s.106 needs). Finally, the industry recognises that the barriers to entry into the industry can be high for young people (for example, gaining a CSCS card can be expensive and difficult), and positive action is required to overcome those barriers.

Referral agencies; while many agencies provide employability support for young people this is often not enough to prepare young people for a sustainable career in construction. Referral agencies such as charities engaged in employability programmes, young offender teams in boroughs, and Jobcentre Plus, need further support to get young people into construction.

Young people; the programme is for young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET). These young people will often have had a poor start in life, without a supportive family background; perhaps brought up in an environment where life-long dependency on benefits is the norm; and perhaps may have a criminal past. One common factor is that these young people have a chronic lack of confidence in themselves and their ability to progress into work.

The qualifying criteria of the programme were – The young person should show a previous interest in a career in the construction

industry. The young person should be 16-24 years old, and NEET. Later in the programme

candidates who were ‘at risk of NEET’ were permitted on the programme, allowing young people who were about to finish college courses or working on a casual basis to take part.

The young person should be resident in Southwark, Lambeth, Lewisham and Wandsworth. This requirement was relaxed part-way through the programme after problems with young person recruitment were experienced, with recruitment from outside the four boroughs allowed on a case-by-case basis.

30th June 2016

April 2015 – June 2016

The young person should be either BME, female, or a young offender Work placements should be multi-skilled, offering at least three different areas of

construction.The programme was run jointly with London Youth, with targets being split 50/50. Construction Youth Trust was nominated as lead organisation by CITB/LEP.The programme set the following targets for the Trust over a 16 month period (February 2015 – June 2016) – 50 young people recruited to the programme 50 young people to complete a work placement 50% of young people (25) to progress in employment, education or training 25 different employers

One Blackfriars (main contractor; Brookfield Multiplex) is a significant source of work experience and job opportunity for

the young people of Southwark on the Routes Into Construction programme.

Seven young people were placed at the site in 2016, and this led to jobs for four of them. The site is due for completion in 2019, and will continue to support the Trust’s young people.

Brookfield Multiplex were a major supporter of Routes Into Construction, offering placements at One Blackfriars and

Cartwright Gardens (see below) and with other sites coming online later in 2016

One Blackfriars, south of Blackfriars Bridge.

30th June 2016

April 2015 – June 2016

2. Major Achievements

For the Construction Youth Trust, the programme has led to over 40 young people gaining work experience with 18 different employers. 11 of those young people have directly or indirectly got jobs in the construction industry. The Trust has deepened its relationship with Willmott-Dixon as a result of the programme, with Willmott-Dixon planning to refurbish the Trust’s training centre in Bermondsey in July 2016.The programme has led to a solid relationship between the Trust and Brookfield Multiplex, with placements at two sites with more sites to follow. This is a new and valuable relationship for the Trust.The programme has led to many positive outcomes for young people. See annex 1 for case studies of the impact on young peoples’ lives.

Employers and young people come together at Cartwright Gardens.

Cartwright Gardens (main contractor; Brookfield Multiplex) provided five placements for young people in Camden & Islington, with four of those people offered work in plumbing, labouring and carpentry.

30th June 2016

April 2015 – June 2016

3. Were any of the achievements not met?

The project did not make its targets for work placements, number of employers used or young people into EET. Performance against target was as follows:

Target Outcome

Recruitment – 50 young people recruited 120 young people recruited

Work Placements – 50 young people placed

43 young people placed*

Employers – 25 different employers used to provide placements

30 different employers used**

‘Into EET’ – 50% (25) of young people placed to go on to employment, education or training.

11 young people into education, employment or training.***

* - Four placements were disallowed by CITB/LEP due to insufficient evidence** - Eleven employers were disallowed by CITB/LEP, although evidence for their involvement was produced*** - Four ‘Into EET’ outcomes were disallowed by CITB/LEP due to insufficient evidence

There were a number of reasons why, once young people were recruited to the programme, it provided difficult to get placements started and keep the young person engaged. These issues are described in detail at Annex 2, in which the following issues were identified – Three areas of construction was difficult for employers to deliver – the need to

provide a multi-skills placements led to employers refusing young people for placement, placements being held across different employers / sites.

NEET young people with additional support needs have a range of competitive options – in a growing economy this programme competed with a number of other programmes for young people. This made recruitment difficult, and made it hard to keep young people engaged on the programme.

NEET young people ‘get cold feet’ – many young people with confidence issues signed up to the programme and then would not engage with us, as they felt they had made a mistake.

Employers do not give enough priority to the programme – while many employers take CSR and community obligations seriously, they don’t give enough priority to creating and supporting placement opportunities. Smaller companies operating on tight margins have given a poor experience to our young people, often making them sweep up and other menial jobs rather than provide a good learning experience.

Employers are reluctant to take young people under 18 – due to a conservative interpretation of current health & safety regulation.

30th June 2016

April 2015 – June 2016

Poor employer supervision leading to intimidation – young people need a little extra supervision and support. Where this has not been provided some of our young people have been intimidated by their co-workers, leading to an incomplete placement.

Young people taken off placement by JCP – although the Trust has SWBA status with Jobcentre Plus and so young people should not need to visit Jobcentre while on placement, this is not well communicated within Jobcentre Plus, leading to young people being pulled off placement needlessly.

Young people do not communicate well and do not feel any obligation to the programme – in the early days of the programme it was difficult to keep young people committed to the programme. This problem was addressed by -

Placing young people as quickly as possible. Communicating clearly the benefits of the programme at the outset, and the

young person’s obligations to the programme.

As the Trust decided early in the programme that working with larger employers was the best way to achieve work placements, the target of 25 different employers has not been met. In the early part of the programme it was hard to find and evidence job opportunities for young people, and so we have not met the ‘Into EET’ target. By working with employers with s.106 obligations to employ young people, much progress has been made to ensure work placements lead to employment opportunities – for example, five young people have been placed at Brookfield Multiplex’s Cartwright Gardens site, and four of those young people have accepted jobs there.

Jordan first met the Trust in March 2016 when he gained his level 1 H&S qualification and CSCS card at a course at Kingsgate Community Centre

in west Hampstead.

Jordan then went on placement with Herts Heritage, a small construction company based in

east London, doing kitchen fitting and general labouring.

Marcella Dolan, business development manager for Herts Heritage, said “Herts Heritage enjoyed supporting Jordan with this placement as he was

a positive and willing member of our team and we hope he benefited from his time with us.”

Jordan worked with Tommy Earl of Herts Heritage during his placement.

30th June 2016

April 2015 – June 2016

4. What lessons have been learned?

Place quickly – many young people were lost to the programme in the early days as it was not possible to produce a placement from employers quickly. This was improved during the project by –

o Working with employers to reduce timescales, and ensuring the employers properly resourced their offer to the Trust

o Recruiting from the Trust’s Budding Builders course early, so preparation for placement could be done while the young person was completing the CSCS test.

Set young people’s expectations and obligations – it became obvious early in the programme that young people signing up to the programme did not understand that this was an achievable step forward for them towards the workplace, and that this put obligations on them. This issue was resolved by working more closely with the Trust’s Budding Builders programme (see below) as follows –

o Course tutors presenting the opportunity for work experience at the start of the course

o Formal presentation of the benefits and opportunities of work experience mid-way through the course, often with employers.

o One to one discussion of the programme, where it is made clear that in exchange for the opportunity of work experience, the young person has obligations; answer their phone, be on time, and show initiative

Focus on employers with s106 obligations – there was an expectation from young people that work experience would lead to paid work. This proved to be difficult for many employers who were keen to offer work experience as part of the corporate social responsibility (CSR), but could not offer a route to work after the placement. As this programme is trades-based, almost all young people were placed with sub-contractors who did not have targets for young people recruitment and did not have a budget to offer work. To overcome this issue the Trust focussed on main contractors who were obliged by local boroughs to recruit local labour. This led to six job outcomes in the latter part of the project.

Recruit from the CYT course, ideally before the course is finished – in the early part of the programme much effort was made recruiting directly to the programme via Jobcentre Plus and other referral channels. Many of these direct recruits proved unreliable for a number of reasons. From November onwards it was decided to recruit directly from the Trust’s Budding Builder programme, allowing staff to get to know candidates for placement a lot better. As a result recruitment to the programme improved, resulting in over 100 young people signing up for the programme.

Less onerous evidence requirements – it proved difficult to gather evidence for the project, taking up a lot of resources that could have been better spent creating placement opportunities. A more streamlined set of evidence criteria and procedures for future programmes would be useful.

Three areas of construction is too much – The requirement for three areas of construction was a difficult one for employers to work with. Many employers are

30th June 2016

April 2015 – June 2016

specialised in certain areas, which meant they could not support the programme. Many young people already had a particular trade they wanted to focus on, and resented having to work on other things. The idea of a multi-skilled placement is a good one and works for many young people, but has provided difficult to deliver – future programmes should have the option of providing single trade placements.

Work in partnership – a number of excellent relationships were developed as part of the programme, most significantly with DWP/Jobcentre Plus, Willmott-Dixon, and Brookfield Multiplex.

o On the other hand, Construction Youth Trust and London Youth did not work together at the operational level as closely as they could have, although relations between the two organisations were good. While the two organisations agreed in principal to share work experience opportunities and young people, this did not happen in practice.

Routes Into Construction provided placements in the trades, but we also placed people in professional roles – Sebastian was placed with Willmott-Dixon at their IPO

site in Aldgate, for experience as a site manager and quantity surveyor. Sebastian went on to work for Airey

Miller Construction as a quantity surveyor.

The Interiors division of Willmott-Dixon is a major source of work placements and support for young people.

The Trust placed young people at seven different sites across central London, and this has led to Willmott-Dixon

agreeing to refurbish the Trust’s Bermondsey Training Centre.

Sebastian Baroian with Duncan Booth, IPO site manager.

30th June 2016

April 2015 – June 2016

5. What partners did you work with?

Contractors – Anna Koukoullis Willmott-Dixon, Interiors division Simon Tranter Willmott-Dixon, Interiors division Caron Dunlop Brookfield Multiplex, UK Community Liaison Manager Ben Press Brookfield Multiplex, One Blackfriars site Joshua Davies Brookfield Multiplex, One Blackfriars site Claire Scrimgeour Brookfield Multiplex, Cartwright Gardens site Gary Burt Graham Construction, SOAS site Dave Clark WJ South Patrick Warren Keepmoat

Referral agents - Nilza Pereira DWP/JCP, London Bridge JCP Andy Dakeyne DWP/JCP, London East Area Anna Matthews DWP/JCP, London South Area Anne Pavey DWP/JCP, National Employer Team Tony Hyland DWP/JCP, National Employer Team Max Davies Inspired at Work Construction Youth Trust – Budding Builders programme

o Nicola Masono Lucy Grayo Wendy Heller

London Youth Build-It programmeo James Alexandero Nadine Johnson-Wills

Staff from DWP London South pose for the camera.

As a result of the Routes Into Construction programme the Trust developed a close relationship with DWP/Jobcentre Plus. Regular recruitment visits were made to London Bridge and Hackney JCPs, and DWP staff from across London attended presentations of the Trust’s programmes at Bermondsey in April/May 2016.

Almost a third of young people placed as part of the programme were referred by Jobcentre Plus.

30th June 2016

April 2015 – June 2016

30th June 2016