East End’s Education-Business partnership lands £30,000 NatWest windfall

Up to 2,000 students are getting a helping hand in London’s deprived East End to find their career path in the next 12 months after a high street bank dished out £30,000 to an organisation that bridges the gap between school and the world of work.

The grant has been given to Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership by NatWest, as part of this year’s £2.5m hand-outs from the bank’s Skills Fund to help organisations that “make a real difference” in disadvantaged communities.

“We will now be able to help 2,000 students with our programme thanks to this substantial grant,” the Partnership’s director Helen Sanson revealed.

“This gives students the confidence and knowledge to make the right choice after leaving sixth form, helping to tackle unemployment and deprivation from generation to generation.”

The money is being used for the education partnership’s Pathways to Success programme helping young people make informed choices about their future.

The programme provides students aged 16 to 18 with advice on how to develop skills to make a success of whichever “pathway” they take—whether to go on to further education like university, to get an apprenticeship or going straight into the jobs market.

NatWest’s London Regional Board chairman Phil Northey said: “The organisations we’ve funded in London alone have made a difference to 1,100 disadvantaged people so far, through 64 new business start-ups, 253 new jobs and achieving 243 professional qualifications.”

The bank received bids from 911 organisations up and down the country, which shortlisted 90 for public votes to decided the final 44 winners—these included the Tower Hamlets Partnership and Hackney Play Association which is the only specialist Playwork training centre in east London.