Chamber members help young people in apprenticeship search

Community interest company 5UP has linked up with two fellow Chamber members to help young people from Birmingham in their hunt for apprenticeships and college places.

Through the Chamber, 5UP was introduced to Radhiya Lovatt from Evolve Apprentices - another social value enterprise - who offer a flexi-shared apprenticeships scheme to ensure construction companies meet their social value and S106 commitments.

Thanks to the introduction, young people from the 5UP programme were able to attend a job fair arranged by Bharat Chauhan, the employer advisor from the Handsworth Jobcentre.

The young people had their CVs compiled by 5UP and they were emailed to Radhiya.

They were subsequently given the opportunity to meet up with her for help and advice at the Handsworth job fair.

Radhiya is now trying to help some of these young people land apprenticeship roles in the building sector - particularly those who want to become electricians and plumbers.

These young people have been attending 5Up 'Bring it on Brum ' programme - funded by StreetGames - for the past two years and had left school in September 2022 to attend local colleges.

5UP helped to connect them to apprenticeship service providers, with the hope that they will be offered apprenticeships in the building industry.

5UP also joined forces with Chamber member Bevel Williams to ensure the young people were equipped with laptops to do their coursework or apply for apprenticeship roles.

Repc Ltd is a social enterprise that specialises in re-purposing IT equipment for use in communities across the UK.

Bevil presented the laptops at 5UP 's Muay Thai venue.

Bevil Williams, managing director at RePC Ltd, said: “The services that 5UP are delivering to the youth of the communities in which they operate is invaluable.

“The young people clearly value and enjoy the high standards of training delivered by the dedicated, professional and caring staff.

“The mission of 5UP aligns with the values and services of RePC Ltd and we are absolutely delighted to be able to provide much needed IT equipment to their trainees to ensure that they can benefit from access to the technology, regardless of their economic background. ”