New Careers Hub to support West London students

14 December 2021

We are delighted to announce that Education Development Trust’s Employability and Careers Directorate will be delivering a new programme, West London Careers Hub, in partnership with the Mayor of London, European Social Fund and the Careers Enterprise Company.

This is one of four new Careers Hubs launched across London to give young people a head start in finding great jobs and planning their futures. The £11.5 million investment, funded by the Mayor of London (who launched the scheme this month), the European Social Fund and the Careers and Enterprise Company, will offer support to secondary schools, further education colleges, Alternative Provision and Special Educational Needs schools and colleges across London.

West London Careers Hub builds on the successes of Careers Hubs elsewhere in the UK by linking schools and colleges with employers. Through these partnerships, the Hub will aim to ensure that every young person gets the guidance, skills and experience they need to make an informed decision about their future career path. The Hub will also run a programme of events including work insight visits and providing employer encounters.

Schools and colleges in the area will be able to access support through the Hub, which will help build effective networks and support schools and colleges to achieve exemplary careers support for their students by meeting the Gatsby Benchmarks.

Employers in West London, including both large, national firms and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), are encouraged to join the Hub, not only to bring the world of work to life for local young people but to also provide personal development opportunities for their staff by volunteering in schools and colleges and potentially sourcing future talent for their organisation.

Delivered by the Employability & Careers team at Education Development Trust in partnership with the Careers Enterprise Company, West London Careers Hub is a European Social Fund programme. The expansion of this initiative, which has already been implemented in other areas of the country, follows a hugely successful trial and rollout, backed by the Careers and Enterprise Company working on behalf of the Department for Education.  

The Careers Enterprise Company published a study in 2019 demonstrating that the initial roll out of Careers Hubs had increased overall careers education progress and performance by five percent in the first twelve months.

Mark De Backer, Deputy Director (Young People) Employability & Careers at Education Development Trust, commented:

‘I see the roll out of Careers Hubs nationally as a cornerstone to the Careers Strategy. It’s really exciting therefore that Education Development Trust is part of this Greater London Authority and Careers and Enterprise Company led initiative. We will not only aim to support Careers Leaders in schools and colleges develop their programmes and connect with employers to support young people with their career planning but will aim to connect the different positive activities going on in the careers landscape in our case across West London.’

If you are interested in finding out more about the programme, please contact us on info@wlcareershub.com or visit www.wlcareershub.com.