Video: Steve Rigby announces £600k of funding from The Rigby Foundation to help young people establish careers

• Steve Rigby, business leader and Chair of The Rigby Foundation, announces £600K of funding for Generation UK to support at least 300 young people establish careers in West Midlands

• Rising youth unemployment is a national issue, but in the West Midlands it is double the national average in Walsall, Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

• The West Midlands has more than 130,000 people currently unemployed - of that number, 16.1% (20,930) are young people aged 16-24 

Steve Rigby, one of the region’s leading business owners, as Co-CEO of Rigby Group, is making a rallying call to fellow business leaders across the West Midlands to step up and help get the region’s 20,000 young unemployed people into work.  This follows Mayor Richard Parker's announcement of his youth employment plan last week.

In the first of several initiatives, today, The Rigby Foundation, the charity of the Rigby family, has announced that it is investing £600k to support at least 300 young people across the region into technically skilled and well-paid jobs over the next three years. 

A three-year commitment has been made to support Generation UK to run skills bootcamps,  supporting individuals facing barriers to employment into life-changing careers that would otherwise be inaccessible. As the Rigby family approaches the 50th anniversary of their family business in 2025, they have committed to put social mobility at the heart of their charitable support, and were impressed by the life changing results Generation UK achieves.

Generation UK, will train young people in sought after technical skills such as cloud and data engineering, cyber security, data analytics, green energy, sustainable construction and health and care.

Active in the region since 2020, Generation UK has an impressive success rate, with 90% of learners completing the boot camp and 70% securing meaningful employment with an average starting salary of £24k, and more than 80% of those who complete, are still in employment one year on.

There are currently 20,930 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 it’s important to address the lack of skills which are holding the region back: “As a family with close personal and business connections to the West Midlands, we want to see more young people in our region gain the education and skills they need to secure life changing, well paid employment. 

“We are a community-focused family and want to play our part in giving our home region’s young people the opportunity to make a successful life for themselves. I am also urging other business leaders in the region to get behind the mayor’s initiative, whether by offering training, work placements or apprenticeships. By all working together we can achieve great things and bring about much needed change.

“This is the first year of a three year long-term partnership with Generation UK, equipping young people with skills that are in high demand from West Midlands based businesses.”

Michael Houlihan, CEO of Generation UK said: “It is an honour to have such an established and respected group like The Rigby Foundation on board. We have been active in the West Midlands since 2020, but this funding means we can really grow in the region and will be able to help young adults secure well-paid and skilled professions where there is a real need such as in technology and the green retrofit sector.”

Aside from the funding provided by the Foundation, SCC, Rigby Group’s cornerstone IT service business and a leading business in the West Midlands, will support young people on the programme in a variety of ways from bringing staff in to volunteer at Generation UK, to providing equipment, and to hosting events with Generation UK to mentor and skill up the learners.

Mark Rathbone from Stoke on Trent was 27 when he went on a cloud engineering skills bootcamp - he has hugely benefited from the programme; “I could not have got into good employment without the help of Generation UK. I was on a downward spiral - started college but left it, worked in a warehouse for a few years in a low paid job, was then unemployed for a long while and lived with my mum who was a single parent. Life was tough and I was disheartened. I came across Generation UK and their support has helped me to turn my life around.

“I went on one of their skills bootcamps and built my skills in engineering. I am now a DevOps Engineer for PM Connect and I love it! Within 4 years of qualifying from the bootcamp, I now earn £45K per annum. Programmes like this are life-changing for young people like me from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Rigby Foundation’s money will make such a huge difference to so many young people’s lives.”