In response to the unprecedented unemployment levels predicted as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK government developed a the Kickstart Scheme to create new 6-month job placements for young people who are currently on Universal Credit and at risk of long-term unemployment. These placements supported the participants to develop the skills and experience they need to find work after completing the scheme.

The BME London Landlords collaborative group joined the Kickstart Housing Partnership Network supported by Clarion Futures who fulfilled a management role linking with central government and Job centres to facilitate placements which help meet the initiatives objective to reduce the impact of unemployment for 16-24-year olds. BMELL took advantage of this unique opportunity to work with other Housing Associations in the network and placed 17 work placements on a six month contract, with overwhelmingly successful feedback from the BMELL member organisations who were impressed with the attitudes and work ethic of the young people who took up the placements. 

Clarion Futures provided additional job placement support training, which included employability training programme, CV support, goal setting and interview preparation. It is hoped that the work placement experience for both our members will provide other opportunities to work collaboratively in the future with other larger mainstream HA’s with Employment and Training provision, as many of the young people who participated have already moved on to the next stages of their career journey with paid employment.

This joint working model met our collaborations aspirations to develop a Community enabling initiative providing additional human resource within our organisation with the quid pro quo of placements being able to benefit from the experience of kickstarting their careers.