Talking youth employment

This week, Tottenham Hotspur Foundation hosted the latest All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Youth Employment meeting at the London Academy of Excellence Tottenham.

The primary objective of the APPG for Youth Employment is to promote youth employment in all its forms and the role of young people within the economy. It ensures young people’s voices are heard, highlights the need for quality opportunities and shares best practice.

The APPG for Youth Employment holds regular meetings where evidence is heard from a range of invited organisations on topics relating to youth employment. This meeting was attended by Michael Tomlinson MP, Chair of the APPG, and representatives from organisations such as the Department for Education, Talent Match Black Country, Prince’s Trust, Street Soccer Foundation, Digital Skills UK and Movement to Work.

Sarah Ebanja, Chief Executive of Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, gave an overview of the Club’s work to improve employment opportunities for young people in the local area before Jordan Mattiss and Ahmed Mohammed, two local young people who are employed by the Foundation, spoke about their employment pathways.

Since 2013, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and its Foundation have worked in partnership with Haringey Council and the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure as many jobs as possible emerging from the new stadium development have gone to local residents.

To date, the partnership has successfully engaged with employers to ensure job vacancies are open to local people and has actively worked with individuals across the community to help with CV building, supporting the application process and providing access to training and employment opportunities. The Club has helped place Haringey residents within jobs across a wide range of industries associated with the stadium development, including construction, IT, hospitality, security and retail.

In addition to providing jobs connected to the stadium development scheme, the Foundation runs a wide range of programmes for 16- to 24-year-olds from the local area that are not in employment, education or training, from its partnership with ‘Leadership Through Sport & Business’, a pioneering scheme that helps bright youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds establish high-level careers in business and finance, to ‘Skills Sessions’, which help people gain an accredited vocational qualification.

Sarah Ebanja said: “It’s been important for us to host the latest APPG meeting and showcase the work we do to help young people from Haringey gain credible, long-term employment. As a Club and Foundation, we are committed to increasing the quality and quantity of apprenticeship, training and employment opportunities for young people and we look forward to continuing to work with the APPG for Youth Employment in the future.”