Cash boost will help Tomorrow’s People expand

As the UK’s recession deepens, not only have the 1.2 million young people currently not in education, employment or training (NEET) become increasingly vulnerable, we are at risk of losing a whole new generation of potential as that number escalates.

Securing new funding has become even more crucial, so we were absolutely delighted to hear that Tomorrow’s People, a charity helping unemployed people into work, has been awarded £3.2 million in Scotland to help it expand its unique Working It Out programme for those who are NEET and fall into the ‘More Choices, More Chances’ group.

The grant, from Inspiring Scotland, will enable us to replicate our current Glasgow programme in four new areas; Edinburgh, Inverclyde and North and East Ayrshire over the next seven years. How did we secure it? A lot of hard work and a track record of success were, of course, central.

We are proud that up until the current economic crisis, 90 per cent of people of all ages we help to find jobs are still in employment three months later and 76 per cent are still working 12 months later, while over 70 per cent of the young people we work with move into jobs or training or back into education.

However, we also applied the business principles that we learnt from another of our investors, the Private Equity Foundation (PEF). We are in no doubt that the preparation we went through to convince PEF to invest in Tomorrow’s People put us in the best possible position. PEF follows a vigorous selection and due diligence, which includes everything from finance to strategy, while at the same time ensuring that its charities are supported through that process, helping them hone their business plans.

Having been made “match fit” by PEF, we knew we could do it again! This award takes us one step closer to our ambition of embedding Working It Out as one of the primary support initiatives for the NEET group.

For more information about Tomorrow’s People log on to www.tomorrows-people.org.uk and the Private Equity Foundation can be found at www.privateequityfoundation.org