Building Future Skills
The Pitch
Problem statement
The Brent Cross Town development can be an engine for social mobility and deliver genuinely meaningful career opportunities for local young people, including apprenticeships. Without the right support, local young people from disadvantaged/underrepresented backgrounds are likely to miss out on these opportunities. Schools frequently lack the expertise and connections to link students to built environment sector careers. Evidence also shows that disadvantaged young people are 60% less likely to enter professional careers than their better-off peers. Therefore, it's crucial to bridge the gap between opportunities on the development and local schools/underrepresented young people.
Solution
We will deliver a ‘Building Future Skills’ (BFS) programme at the Brent Cross Town development, engaging young people from local schools such as Clarion school. Over 3 days, young people will take part in a hands-on team activity, becoming immersed in built environment sector. The project brief will centre on the Brent Cross Town development, such as designing a new structure for upcoming plots (e.g. the student complex on Plot 43). Young people will work with inspiring professionals from the site, who can share insights into the real-world development. They will also take part in a site tour, employer networking sessions, and present their projects to a panel of development experts.
Why are we best placed to deliver?
We have delivered 11 BFS projects over the past year, reaching 260 young people (88% from underrepresented backgrounds). With this experience, we have refined our BFS delivery model, aligning the project focus with high-demand careers (e.g. Building Services Engineering) and immersing young people in construction developments similar to Brent Cross Town. 92% of young people felt they’d developed useful employer relationships; 87% improved their understanding of apprenticeships. With a dedicated Employer Engagement team (250+ industry partners), we have the expertise to consistently connect young people to career opportunities at Brent Cross Town, e.g. work experience and apprenticeships.
Focus Areas
Delivery plan
Budget breakdown
| Coaching, training and programme coordination staff costs | £4,500 |
| Programme oversight/management costs | £1,300 |
| Direct project costs, e.g. resources, student travel & subsistence | £1,000 |
| Other programme staff costs, e.g. evaluation, marketing, communications, data monitoring & admin support | £1,700 |
| Contributing to charity running costs/overheads | £1,500 |
Beneficiaries
25 people
Who will benefit
Expected impact
Through our pilot, we will engage 25–30 students (aged 16-18) from local schools, including Clarion School. 70+% will be from underrepresented backgrounds, ensuring we reach young people who would otherwise be likely to miss out on career opportunities created by Brent Cross Town. We expect 70-80% of young people to report improvements in soft skills, confidence, and industry understanding, preparing them to capitalise on local opportunities when they reach a post-18 transition. As a direct result of BFS, we also expect young people to receive work experience offers from the employers involved. Delivering this pilot will kickstart our long-term presence in the area. Our existing contacts at Related Argent and Barnet Council will help us to consistently connect young people to work experience and apprenticeship opportunities, in line with the S106 priorities of the development. This will likely include the extensive opportunities generated by Plots 15 and 43 in the coming years.
Track record
In the past year, we’ve delivered two BFS projects in Barking & Dagenham. One BFS took place at Vistry’s Beam Park development site. The BFS invited young people from local schools to work on a 3-day task centred on the development: designing their own structures with a brief of integrating the existing community with the new one. Evaluations indicate that 95% of young people improved their knowledge of built environment careers. Across the 2 projects, we engaged 41 local young people, 100% of whom expressed a deprivation factor. In this borough, young people are typically alienated from opportunities closer to the City due to distance and poor travel links. By immersing them in local development projects, BFS offered young people a ‘bridge’ to opportunities/employers in their own neighbourhoods. 28 young people went on to take part in work experience with a BFS host/supporter, and 3 participants from the previous year have now entered local apprenticeships.