A brokerage and training programme helping the East End’s unemployed has hit its 1,000 target in its first 24 months of getting men and women into jobs.
The ‘WorkPath’ scheme has helped 1,113 people find sustainable jobs with employers brokered by Tower Hamlets Council.
“Trying to get into work for the first time or after a long period of unemployment can be intimidating,” the council’s cabinet member for work Motin Uz-Zaman said.
“This programme has a specific focus on helping those who face more barriers than others, such as the long-term unemployed, women from ethnic backgrounds, the over 50s and those with poor mental and physical health.”
Specialist advisors work from their Upper Bank Street headquarters in Canary Wharf and from the Young WorkPath office in Shadwell’s Watney Market to help jobseekers needing extra guidance. They also work with housing associations, training providers and civil society organisations.
Mayor John Biggs said: “We set up WorkPath a year ago because there were people who had been left behind by the job market for a variety reasons. They needed help, while others had left education struggling with the transition to the world of work.”
The scheme has helped reduce the gap between the East End’s employment levels after Tower Hamlets had been trailing behind the London average by almost 12 per cent. Now, two years on, that gap has narrowed to just 1.4pc.
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