Future of London’s deadline for its Emerging Talent Programme for London’s ethnic minority communities has been extended.
The programme offers ethnic minorities the opportunity to start a professional career in London’s housing, regeneration, and development sector.
The new extended deadline is 12pm on Friday 26 November.
Future of London (FOL), the capital’s independent network for regeneration, housing, infrastructure, and economic development practitioners, created the programme with a group of public and private sector companies to help transform the housing and regeneration sector to make it more representative of the community it is working for.
Michael Nathan, Emerging Talent Programme manager, said: “The programme aims to achieve a number of benefits – firstly, that individuals from talented ethnic minority backgrounds are able to start a successful career in a field that they may not have considered before.
“Secondly, those individuals can become role models to other members of ethnic minority backgrounds and widen the opportunities and scope for people, so it’s providing a source of inspiration and a wider range of career options for people from ethnic minority backgrounds.
“The other bit, is what is being delivered in London around housing, regeneration, urban economic development and infrastructure will be delivered with a more effective way to take in the needs of the widest range of the community.
“So essentially there’s a high level of what’s being delivered benefiting the widest range of the community, because the people delivering the solutions will have a better appreciation and understanding, and are representative of the end users.”
Future of London’s Emerging Talent Programme is a 21-month paid position that gives applicants an insight into various jobs in the housing and regeneration sector.
It includes three different work placements, each based in different host employers, that will be oriented around different professional job roles in housing and regeneration.
The placements will be nine months, six months, then another six months running from the end of January 2022 to October 2023.
Host employers of the work placements include a variety of London borough councils, housing associations, government teams and a range of private sector companies.
As well as the three placements, applicants will be supported by an individual mentor who is an established professional working in housing and regeneration, receive regular monitoring, support and guidance from a FOL programme manager, and support in securing ongoing employment after completing the programme.
Nathan explained why the programme was designed.
He said: “The concern raised by previous discussions is that the teams who are working in in different parts of the built environment sector especially in London delivering work related to housing, regeneration, urban and economic development and infrastructure are not representing the ethnic mix of the communities in London, and therefore those teams may not be able to fully understand and align with the interests of the widest range of the community.”
You can visit Future of London’s Emerging Talent Programme web page for the application form.
Photo credit: Future of London
