ELBA secures funding for project supporting young black men
We are thrilled to have secured funding from Nomura, State Street and XL Catlin to run a project to help young black men (YBM) gain entry into financial and professional services. The Parity Project brings together the business skills and expertise of our partners to support greater labour market engagement and participation among YBM, and raise awareness of and vital access to sustainable career opportunities.
The initiative responds to the fact that YBM tend to fare worse than their peers in many ways. Despite consistently performing as well as and often better than their white counterparts in education, young black men are less successful in securing graduate level roles and more likely to underachieve in the workplace.
Research undertaken by Black Training and Enterprise Group (BTEG) found that:
- Young black men have a higher unemployment rate than young men and women in all other ethnic groups. The unemployment rate for YBM in London actively seeking work is 30%, more than double that of young white men (14%).
- The unemployment rate for young black men has remained persistently high despite improvements in their education attainment.
- Young black men have higher rates of post-16 education than white young men.
We are currently looking for black (Caribbean/African/Mixed Heritage) men aged between 16-35 who are either working in financial and professional services or who have been trying to find employment in this sector, but with no success. We’d be grateful to speak to these people as part of our research in partnership The Black Training and Enterprise Group (BTEG), helping us to enable change. The research will ideally consist of a face-to-face interview, but if necessary these can be done by skype or telephone. If you fit this description and would be happy to speak to us, please contact Callum by Friday 15th September 2017 at callum.bunyan@london-works.com.
