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Black training & enterprise group

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Building Futures

Building Futures is funded through the Treasury/Cabinet Office Invest to Save Budget over the period April 2005 to March 2008. The Invest to Save Budget aims to create sustainable improvements in the capacity to deliver public services by piloting joined up and innovative approaches.

The core aim of Building Futures is to test a new way of collaborative working between the voluntary and community sector (VCS) and the private sector to improve the effectiveness of employment support for black and minority ethnic (BME) communities. The project's lead partners are BTEG and Talent, a private sector recruitment company specialising in reaching a diverse workforce. The project is being delivered in the London Boroughs of Brent, Hackney, Haringey, Newham and Tower Hamlets.

The collaborative model being tested by Building Futures links VCS organisations which are supporting unemployed BME people in the target boroughs, to a pipeline of job vacancies sourced by Talent. The model is intended to play to the strengths of the different partners; the VCS organisations can focus on working with their clients, while Talent can focus on working with employers. This 'ecosystem' of co-dependent partners aims to increase the number of workless BME people who get jobs, particularly the 'hard to reach', thereby helping to tackle the gap between BME employment rates and the national average. To strengthen the 'ecosystem' the Building Futures project also provides extensive support to the VCS organisations, aimed at building their capacity to work within the collaborative model and to improve job outcomes for their clients.

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Building Futures objectives and target outputs

The three core objectives for the Building Futures project are to:

• Support people who are 'hardest to reach' (such as Pakistani/Bangladeshi women, disaffected young people, those who will not engage with mainstream support, including the workless/inactive) to overcome barriers to employment;
• Build the capacity of VCS organisations to improve their processes, demand-side delivery and cost efficiency;
• Develop an 'eco-system'; a co-dependent partnership designed to increase the effectiveness of employment support delivered to BME communities and move them into sustainable employment

The target outputs for the Building Futures project over the three year delivery period are:

• Engage 3,500 BME individuals from African, Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups from the target boroughs of Brent, Hackney, Haringey, Newham and Tower Hamlets;
• Place at least 35% of those engaged (1,225) individuals into employment that is permanent in nature;
• Of the 1,225 individuals placed, at least 30% (1,050 individuals) will sustain employment for at least 10 of 13 weeks;
• Deliver a 'Career Healthcheck' to those placed into work after six months of employment with the aim of enabling at least 800 individuals to progress in employment (skills and career development)

For more information please contact us on buildingfutures@bteg.co.uk