The Last Mile

Date

3 years

Contact

Chris Webb

Country

United Kingdom

Development Partnership

Tribal Education Ltd

Demand

The Last Mile was set up to address several issues within the Cultural and Creative Sector: the under-representation of BME groups, minority women, disabled, and white working class in the dynamic sector the dangers of local community exclusion within major regeneration projects the opportunities that local procurement strategies offer to catalysing minority enterprise and the impact of Internet platforms on the supply chain of creative businesses.

Solution

It was designed to help people who demonstrated motivation and aptitude in the creative industries to take the final steps to employment or viable freelance careers, through the implementation of sustainable mechanisms to help target groups integrate/re-integrate into the labour market. It was delivered through a multi-regional programme of industry-standard and delivered training capacity building in terms of new platforms, qualifications, partners and systems and tailored business/enterprise support, showcasing and mentoring.

Products

The external evaluator's report, along with various specific reports and products developed by the Partnership can be found on www.equal-works.com

Results

Over 8,500 beneficiaries were supported. 63% were from BME backgrounds, and 66% were female. Some 41% of the beneficiaries moved directly to positive destinations, the largest group into full-time employment, and the next largest into further education or training. Longer-term impact on diversity is hard to predict at this stage, but the large numbers of non-white British beneficiaries in creative sectors where diversity is currently very poor show real potential for change.