The unemployment rate for young black men in the UK, the great majority of whom live in London, is more than double the rate for young white men. This disparity has persisted for years. It has led to Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee calling it “an extraordinary differential in job losses among young black people.”
Since the pandemic, the unemployment rate has risen for young black men at an unprecedented rate. In a bid to tackle this, Trust for London, City Bridge Trust and the Black Training and Enterprise Group (BTEG) have been working together on the Moving on Up initiative, a programme to improve employment outcomes for young black men in London.
Work started in 2014, when a network of employment support providers were funded to help more than 250 young black men into jobs. Learning from the first few years of the initiative helped us shape our current programme of work, which is now more focused on the following strands of work:
- A collective impact model to improve employment support and outcomes for young black men. Working in two London boroughs – Brent and Newham – two collective impact partnerships have been set up, led by the local authorities, and involving job centres, community organisations, colleges, job broker schemes and young black men as Ambassadors.
- A sector-specific employer engagement approach that explores how to get more employers proactively involved in encouraging young black men into higher earning industries. There are two employer champion groups focused on construction, digital/IT and Finance.
- A cross-cutting communications strand that develops messages and materials which engage young black men and/or employers.
- A Peer Ambassadors programme to support young black men to contribute their views to the design of the Initiative and help promote the support through their networks.
The Moving on Up partners are working with the Greater London Authority’s Workforce Integration Team, who share the same goals. BTEG has also produced an ‘inclusive employers toolkit’ to support employers to make changes within their own organisations, so that more young black men are employed. The toolkit can be found here
For more information about the Initiative contact Jeremy