Technology

Lottery to fund waste industry employment scheme

By Jenny Dye | 6 February 2013 | Add a Comment

KELP course

KELP candidates on a site visit at recycling company Powerday.  

Kotuku Community Interest Company (Kotuku) , a not-for-profit environmental consultancy focused on the construction and waste management industries, has announced that its project to help young unemployed Londoners find long-term employment in the waste industry has been awarded £238,680 from the Big Lottery Fund.

The Hammersmith-based Kotuku Environmental Labourer Project (KELP) trains unemployed Londoners – between the ages of 16 and 24 – to be ‘Environmental Labourers’ in the construction and waste management industries before finding them work opportunities in the appropriate sector.

The Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities programme, which aims to help ‘those most in need’ and build stronger communities, has now awarded the two-part scheme £238,680 of funding, enabling the project to continue for the next two and a half years.

Environmental Labour scheme

Under the scheme, candidates identified by JobCentre Plus will complete a two-week course which takes place both in the classroom and at live construction sites and a materials recycling facility (MRF).

Participants are taught general manual and labour skills as well as key environmental and sustainability skills including:

  • understanding the waste hierarchy and ‘principles of waste minimisation and recycling’;
  • segregating mixed waste into different material streams;
  • describing waste with a European Waste Code;
  • filling in a waste transfer note;
  • recognising WEEE and knowing what to do with it; and
  • recognising hazardous waste and knowing what to do with it 

Participants also qualify with a Construction Skills Certificate Scheme (CSCS) green card and a Certificate of Environmental Awareness. 

In the second stage, candidates are offered a 26-week fixed-term contract of paid employment in the waste or construction industry. The project keeps up regular contact with the young people throughout their traineeship, and aims to provide them with support and advice to help them make the transition into employment.

Candidates will continue to receive benefits during the training programme.

Improving prospects

Speaking of the new lottery funding, Pears said: “We are delighted to have secured the lottery funding to enable us to continue to help London’s young unemployed and improve the prospects of our candidates. These candidates have great ability and aptitude if encouraged and supported and this funding enables us to focus our efforts on giving them a chance to move their lives forward.”

Recycling and waste management company Powerday, which has held KELP training days at its MRF in North West London and given placements to two of the scheme’s candidates, welcomed the Lottery’s decision to award funding to the scheme.

Simon Little, Powerday’s Sales and Marketing Director, said: “We are very pleased to see this great initiative secure funding for the next two years. KELP not only addresses the issues that prevent young people entering the workforce but also provides an attractive proposition for employers. Powerday has a commitment to giving young people a chance and this project enables us to do just that as we expand our business”.

The next KELP course will run from 11 to 22 February.

Companies interested in taking part should contact Andrew Pears at [email protected].