West Ham United and Newham College

West Ham United Foundation

The community department of West Ham United is celebrating the start of it’s 25th year of service in East London and Essex and to mark this amazing milestone the Club has announced it’s re-launch as the West Ham United Foundation.

‘One of our key aims is to break down barriers to sports participation and, in doing so, unite the local community through the power of football. The foundation also seeks to creat life-changing opportunities for it’s participants, as well as facilitating the West Ham player pathway for those who excel’

The foundation has worked with Leadership Through Sport & Business since 2014 and the outcomes speak for themselves with 80% of the last two cohorts being offered full time jobs by their apprenticeship employers.  The programme reaches young people who employers may otherwise struggle to find.  The West Ham United Foundation is a Prime Delivery Partner for this programme, providing a fantastic support for these young people.

Since the Trust began in 1990 they have made some incredible achievements. The West Ham United Community Sports Trust’s flagship Trainee and Mentoring Scheme has seen the Trust work with Barking and Dagenham local authority.  This scheme enables young people aged 18-25 to receive mentoring from the Community Trust’s coach educators and sports assessors, and delivers high quality coaching to over 1,000 primary school children from local communities every week.

The nationally-run Kicks project is the Premier League’s flagship inclusion initiative which seeks to divert disaffected youth via a range of positive activites and acrredited outcomes. The West Ham United Community Sports Trust Kicks projects work closely with the Local Authorities, Safer Neighbourhood Team, Children Youth Services, and Youth offending teams to establish a daily routine of sporting and educative activities which are designed to gain volunteering and employment opportunities.  Exit strategies from the Kicks project include partnerships with the Princes Trust and Community Links.

Newham College

Newham College is the education delivery partner for the West Ham United cohort.

Newham College has provided training for LTSB students since 2014.

AAT Level 2 is delivered during the 4 month pre-employment programme and Level 3 is delivered as part of a 12 month apprenticeship.

The principal and chief executive Di Gowland sums up the ethos of the college.

‘Newham college offers much more than a comprehensive list of exceptional courses. It offers new opportunities, new beginnings, new ways of looking at your future. You may want to gain new skills to get a specific job, you may want to gain additional skills to seek a promotion, you may want to prepare to enter higher education or you may want to develop your language or other skills. No matter what you want to learn, no matter when and how you want to learn it, there is an excellent chance that you will find what you need right here. If you’re unsure about the best course for you, our skilled and experienced course consultants will help you choose wisely. Whatever direction you choose, now is the time to act.

Take that first step, make that new beginning, grab the opportunity – and we will do all we can to help you. We will offer you exceptional teaching, outstanding learner support and superb resources. We will work with you on an individual basis, to help you achieve your aspirations, to turn your ambitions into reality. We don’t just want you to enrol on one of our courses but, even more, we want you to succeed. We will do everything we can to make sure you do. A successful college is judged by the success of its students and we are very successful.’