Young people who have been in care to get training and jobs on some of Britain’s biggest construction projects

Places for London, Transport for London (TfL)’s property company, and leading companies from across the construction and infrastructure industry have joined forces with Olympian Fatima Whitbread to bring career opportunities to those leaving or supporting people in the care system.

Nationally, around 40 per cent of young people aged 19–21 with care experience are unemployed or not in education, employment or training, according to ONS data – almost three times the rate among their peers (15 per cent). Care in Construction has been launched to help address this challenge by providing training, work placements, and direct routes into employment.

At an event last week the employer partners in the Care in Construction scheme and their wider working group came together with Olympian Fatima Whitbread, who spent 14 years in the care system herself and has become one of the UK’s most prominent advocates for young people with care experience to launch the scheme. The former Olympic champion has lent the expertise of her charity, FATIMA’S UK CAMPAIGN, to help connect the partners with care leavers and their families in order to support more people entering the construction industry.

Places for London, Heathrow, Gallagher Group and Lower Thames Crossing are working on some of the country’s biggest infrastructure or development sites across London and the south-east. Together, they are opening doors to an industry facing significant skills shortages, while creating life-changing opportunities for young people who are too often underrepresented in the workforce. The partners are working to ensure care leavers and those who support them can access training, work placements and career opportunities in the construction industry.

At a time when a third of the UK construction workforce is expected to retire within the next 10 years and the average worker is aged 45, the programme demonstrates how the industry can tackle skills shortages and social inequality at the same time. Through Care in Construction, the partners are helping to build the next generation of skilled workers while ensuring young people with care experience can access training, support and long-term employment opportunities.

More than 60 care-experienced young people will be supported into employment through the programme, which has the potential to create wider opportunities for thousands more care-experienced young people across London, the southeast and the rest of the UK in the years ahead.

The scheme’s working group also brings in expertise from the Drive Forward Foundation, a charity for care-experienced people, and civil engineering contractor Marlborough Highways.

Through Care in Construction, the partners will open new pathways into an industry many young people may never have considered accessible, giving them the training and confidence to help build some of the UK’s biggest projects. It will also ensure that those leaving care have access to resources to support them in their first steps into the industry.

Places for London will build on its work to date that has seen thousands of people trained through its programmes with its training partner The Skills Centre. Through its five skills hubs across London, Places for London has trained more than 12,000 people and supported thousands into long-term careers in the built environment sector. By providing work experience placements, on-site training at its development sites and skills hubs, Places for London is not only opening up opportunities for people but also helping London and the UK grow.

In addition, Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, has already begun helping care leavers with a Care into Construction reverse careers fair introducing them to the roles with them and their supply chain and it is working with its vast supply chain to build inclusive learner pathways.

The programme also responds to a growing demand for skilled workers across the construction and infrastructure sectors, demonstrating how employers can tackle skills shortages while creating meaningful impact.

Laura Miller, Head of Skills & Growth at Places for London, said: “No young person should be disadvantaged because they grew up in care. By bringing together some of the construction industry’s biggest employers, Care in Construction is creating real opportunities for young people to gain valuable skills, access rewarding careers and fulfil their potential.. This programme is about confidence, ambition and showing young people with care experience that there is a place for them in an industry that helps shape the future of our towns, cities and communities.”

Fatima Whitbread MBE, Founder of FATIMA’S UK CAMPAIGN, said: “I am incredibly proud that FATIMA’S UK CAMPAIGN has helped bring together the Care in Construction programme. This is about far more than employment – it is about creating genuine opportunities for care-experienced young people to build confidence, develop valuable skills and achieve long-term independence. Too many young people leave care without the support networks that many of us take for granted. By working together with industry partners, we are opening doors into meaningful careers, giving young people the chance to realise their potential and build sustainable futures. Every young person deserves the opportunity to be seen, believed in and given a pathway to succeed. Care in Construction is proof that when charities, employers and communities collaborate, we can create lasting change and help transform lives.”

For more information about Places for London’s skills work, visit www.placesforlondon.co.uk/skills-academy - and to learn about their delivery partner, The Skills Centre, go to www.theskillscentre.co.uk.