A Northern Ireland-based contractor has joined forces with UK charity Street League to give young people employability support.

The 'sport for employment' charity targets sports to engage with young people, as well as teach them the key life and work skills they need to move into sustainable employment. 

GRAHAM and Street League have joined forces to support the future careers of young people with newly established construction skills academies. This allows young people who access Street League's services to get motivated and informed about career pathways in the construction industry, providing sector specific employability advice. Each participant with an interest in a career in construction is  given assistance by Street League to receive a Construction Skills Certification Scheme card upon completion – a national benchmark of the skills required to work on a construction site.

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Under the latest phase of the programme, 16 young people completed two-week work placements on the state-of-the-art development of Meadowbank Sports Centre, which GRAHAM is delivering on behalf of City of Edinburgh Council.

Social Impact Manager, Debbie Rutherford, GRAHAM said: "Work placements and the promotion of skills has always been an extremely important part of GRAHAM's overall vision for Scotland, driving the creation of this partnership with Street League. We've developed a collaborative model which will give young people access to Street League's comprehensive employability training as well as specific hands-on construction experience at the Meadowbank Sports Centre site.

"We look forward to working with Street League across a number of different initiatives throughout the year– including fundraising and SVQs."

(CM/MH)