100 young people upskilled amid regional employment crisis
Over the past 12 months, more than 100 young unemployed people from the West Midlands have completed a Skills Bootcamp programme that will help them into work, including tech careers, thanks to funding from The Rigby Foundation.
One year ago, Steve Rigby, Co-CEO of the Rigby Group, announced that his family’s charity- The Rigby Foundation - would be donating £600k over three years to not-for-profit, Generation UK to help the region’s young people get into skilled, well-paid jobs.
Generation UK runs skills bootcamps on cloud and data engineering and technology, green energy and health and social care, and supports individuals facing barriers to employment into life-changing careers.
Generation UK has an impressive track record with 65% of learners are placed in jobs within six months of completing the bootcamp, and the average starting salary for those learners is around £25,000 per year.
There are currently 26,000 unemployed young people across the region, and youth employment is double the national average in areas such as Walsall, Wolverhampton and Birmingham.
Steve Rigby, Chair of The Rigby Foundation, said: ”The Trustees of The Rigby Foundation are committed to helping our region’s young unemployed. Generation UK has a great track record of delivering life changing bootcamps for young people facing barriers to employment, and our funding is ensuring many more local youngsters have a chance to participate and hopefully secure a meaningful job.
“We are delighted our partnership has got off to such a great start. Already over 100 local young people have benefited from Generation UK support over the past 12 months. We look forward to hearing many more success stories over the next two years as our Foundation’s three year commitment progresses.”
Michael Houlihan, CEO of Generation UK said: “Unemployment is a national problem and the West Midlands has more than 130,000 unemployed people at the moment - 26,000 are between 18 and 24 years old. The challenge of getting young people into work is complicated – some groups face distinctly more barriers to employment than others. At the same time, the cost of living is soaring and social mobility has stagnated for years.
“We are committed to solving these challenges by supporting those facing barriers into life-changing and otherwise inaccessible work, through bootcamp training with wrap-around support. The Rigby Foundation funding is giving youngsters who face all sorts of barriers, a chance to build a life for themselves that is positive.”
Aside from the funding provided by The Rigby Foundation, SCC, Rigby Group’s cornerstone IT service provider and a leading business in the West Midlands, is supporting young people on the programme by hosting employability skills events where SCC employees share their career journeys, provide advice on CVs and carry out interview training.
Case study:
Deanna Woodhouse-Hawkins is a 25 year old Birmingham success story. Deanna lives in Quinton with her family, and will shortly pass her 3 months’ probation as a Junior Python Developer at Global Telecoms Networks.
Completing her degree in Computing & IT in 2023, Deanna applied for more than 1,200 jobs and only secured a handful of interviews. She was demoralised and on Universal Credit for more than a year, before she came across Generation UK.
She signed up and started a tech bootcamp in October 2024 - completing it in January 2025 before securing her job.
Deanna said: “The course set up by Generation UK instilled hope that I would be able to get a job in the field I was passionate about and had trained for.
“Following a tough period faced with rejection after rejection and my mental health being negatively affected, the bootcamp and wrap-around support helped me to land my amazing role at my employer. I am excited to see where my career takes me.”
