Landmark Training gives a boost to urban youth with the Salesforce.com Foundation BizAcademy

Case Study

Addressing the challenge of youth unemployment

Last year unemployment amongst 16-24 year olds in the UK reached its highest point since 1992 and still today sits at just over 19 per cent, well over double the national average of 7.7 per cent.

Furthermore, recent statistics revealed that 24.2 per cent of residents in the Newham Borough have no formal qualifications compared to the London average of 14.3 per cent , and Newham Borough has an unemployment rate of 11.3 per cent compared to a London average of 5.7 per cent . Supporting young people in the Newham Borough has become more important than ever for Landmark Training.

Landmark Training is a registered charity that helps young people, aged 16 to 18 years old, in the Newham Borough, by taking an approach to learning that most of them won’t have experienced before. With a more personalised approach and a support system where every student has a buddy, those students who did not benefit from the school system get a second chance at education, training and a career path.

Landmark Training offers two routes for its applicants, depending on their level of experience – a Foundation Learning programme and apprenticeships.

Landmark’s Foundation Learning programme delivers functional Maths, English, IT training, and personal and social development. This programme trains around 400 students every year and in its 32-year history, 9,000 people have benefited from the scheme. Approximately 75 to 100 students are on the 26-week programme at any one time, with 76 per cent completing the course, and 73 per cent finding employment or further training.

The Landmark Training apprenticeship scheme offers work-based training in sectors including customer service, business administration and warehousing. As part of the apprenticeship programme, students must also study for the NVQ qualifications.

Landmark Training was looking to expand its programme to offer a greater variety of skills and tap deeper into the growing technology industry. This is where salesforce.com and the Salesforce Foundation comes in through its 1/1/1 integrated philanthropy model www.salesforcefoundation.org. The 1/1/1 model harnesses the power of salesforce.com's people and technology through once per cent Time, one per cent Equity and one per cent Product to increase the effectiveness of nonprofits in pursuing their social missions.

Providing the tools to succeed in business

Together the organisations formed BizAcademy, a programme that works to help young people acquire the skills required to succeed in the working environment by teaching them skills based around the salesforce.com platform.

As part of the programme, the students learn salesforce.com’s technology through delivery of the basic administrator’s course. This course is normally delivered over four days, but with input from salesforce.com trainers, Landmark Training staff have repackaged the course and deliver it over 12 weeks.

At the end of this course, Landmark training and salesforce.com work hard to ensure graduates of the programme have the knowledge, skills and confidence to gain an apprenticeship with a company that uses salesforce.com applications.

BizAcademy also runs BizWeek – a one-week intensive training programme that gives students hands-on practical experience, puts them in front of inspirational high achievers and provides students with the presentation and job-related skills they require to secure and thrive in a job. Over 30 salesforce.com EMEA employees each year share their time and expertise to help develop the students’ skills, and to support BizWeek.

The week culminates in a ‘Dragons Den’ style final where the three teams of students present salesforce.com’s technology to the panel of 'Dragons'. Dragons are representing a fictitious company, but in fact are from salesforce.com’s customer and partner community who potentially have apprenticeship opportunities for the students.

Landmark Training is also partly funded by the Salesforce Foundation with an annual stipend. In 2010 the programme was expanded further, and an IT teacher was appointed to specifically work on the BizAcademy and deliver a 12 week Salesforce 201 Administrator programme.

This extended course was delivered when salesforce.com identified a shortage of trained and experienced salesforce.com Administrators within its industry. The additional training allows young people to be prepared for real jobs and slot straight into the workforce and use the technology effectively right from day one.

Building confidence as well as skills

When students have been let down by society, family and the education system, entering adult life can be an incredibly daunting prospect. With no job, no qualifications and rising unemployment all around them, it is too easy for young people to end up on the wrong track – demotivated, depressed and lacking ambition.

These young adults can be challenging to engage with but all they need is for someone to believe in them and give them a second chance. Landmark Training is doing just that and the hundreds of successful graduates that have gone on to be productive members of society are proof that no young person is ever a lost cause.

The feedback Landmark Training has received from the education community is a measure of the impact its participants have been making. Last year, the UK Government Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) said: “Learners improve their confidence and self-esteem significantly… “They develop high levels of social and vocational skills.” It also noted the “well qualified and highly experienced staff work extremely well as a team and use their knowledge, skills and enthusiasm to raise learners’ aspirations.”

The BizAcademy programme has, over five years, seen 50 students participate, with 86 per cent going on to secure jobs and apprenticeships.

In the words of BizAcademy graduate Abdul Malik: “I was hanging around on the street doing nothing and driving cars… then Landmark called me and said ‘come and work with us’. When I came and did my apprenticeship here everyone was really supportive. Before, I didn’t know how to manage myself in a working environment but I fitted into it because they knew how I was. They put me on the right side.”

“It has helped me and Landmark too. I’ve got core qualifications now - numeracy and literacy, which is a must have to get a job… I did my level 2 apprenticeship. They helped me through step one.”

Landmark Training