More than 100 youth and community organisations have received £7m in funding from Youth Futures Foundation and BBC Children in Need to tackle youth unemployment.
The Inspiring Futures programme opened to applications in July and was a partnership between the two organisations, which contributed £3.5m each to the fund.
The programme aimed to help young people develop their skills and and improve their training and job opportunities. It supported 10-to-24 year-olds in England and 10-to-18 year-olds in the rest of the UK.
Job losses and lack of opportunities are especially impacting young people during the pandemic, and yesterday the Office for National Statistics released figures according to which 757,000 16-to-24 year-olds are not in education, training or employment.
The fund was oversubscribed and received a total of 661 applications, so less than a sixth of them were successful.
Among the organisations that received funding were Beap Community Partnership, which was awarded a £80,000 grant to deliver sports and employability activities for young people from Bangladeshi communities in Bradford, and Transform Training, which received £55,000 towards training and workshops for children and young people with additional needs who have been isolated because of Covid-19.
‘Under 25s are being hardest’
Anna Smee, CEO of Youth Futures Foundation, said: “The impact of Covid-19 on youth unemployment has already been profound. Those under 25 are being hardest hit by job losses, with unemployment rising faster and higher than under three previous recessions. This will have a scarring effect that will leave a generation of young people worse off over the course of their careers.
“We are proud to work in partnership with BBC Children in Need to ensure future generations have access to fulfilling work, no matter what their background, as a result of our ability to inform stakeholders on what works, invest in good practice, and ignite widespread systems change.”
Simon Antrobus, CEO of BBC Children in Need, said: “We want to ensure that all children and young people are able to thrive at every stage of their lives and have the chance to achieve their full potential. This includes addressing the additional impact Covid-19 will have on their future prospects and employability.
“We are proud to partner with the Youth Futures Foundation to award these grants, which will help to transform young lives, unlock their potential and address the root causes of youth unemployment."
