Yahoo News We want our apprentices to become future leaders, says Euan Blair who has bagged $16million to expand the start-up he co-founded
![Euan Blair, eldest son of the former Prime Minister, is set to expand his tech apprenticeship scheme for school leavers after raising $16million.Blair is the co-founder of WhiteHat, which gives school-leavers across the capital one-to-one coaching and tuition for qualifications while they work for major employers such as Facebook and Clifford Chance in digital careers including software development and data analysis.Speaking to Future London about increasing the number of women and BAME people in tech, Blair's enthusiasm is clear. He said: “We’re really engaging a diverse group of people here and making sure that they get the opportunity to be successful.“There is not necessarily one organisation that will go and solve every part of this because we spend our time working with young people who we think will become future leaders and go on to access great careers.“Our vision is to create a diverse group of future leaders, so people like them can get access to opportunities they might not otherwise get access to. Because the stats for graduates are pretty alarming, if you have claimed free school meals, you’ve only got a four per cent chance of going to a Russell Group university, which is a real problem. And around half of those on graduate programmes were educated at private school.”WhiteHat recruits many of its apprentices through multi-academy trusts in the capital such as Ark, Oasis and Harris Federations. It then runs 12-18 months programmes, in small cohorts, that provide apprentices with jobs and coaching, both online and in person.They have partnered with a number of organisations including Flatiron School, General Assembly and Mind Gym to curate the courses.Co-founder of WhiteHat Sophie Adelman shares this passionate vision for higher education. She said: “In every single role these days you need to be well versed in how to deal with data. In software engineering, we just have a massive skills gap in the country, and I know there’s been a lot of investment in certain schools with coding clubs, but the population we primarily deal with, the career starters who come from more diverse backgrounds […] those schools do not have the resources or the teachers to actually teach software engineering or coding so you have a lack of a pipeline coming from these areas and the companies are really struggling to find the talent.”WhiteHat, which was founded in 2016, now has more than 750 apprentices, of which 65 per cent are from BAME backgrounds. Almost half claimed free school meals, and seven per cent are from care leaver or refugee backgrounds.The apprenticeship startup hopes to expand its programme to Leeds later this year, with a view to opening new programmes in Manchester as well.Should government bear responsibility for apprenticeship programmes? Euan answered: “You need a multi-tier system where government can be involved in further education colleges, alongside private enterprise, charities and startups. I think that’s ultimately how you make sure you’ve got a suitable diversity of approaches.“From a government perspective, it’s great that actually apprenticeships are one of the few issues, particularly at the moment, that every single political party and every part of the political spectrum all seem to agree on. We need more of them, we need different routes into great careers that aren’t just through the traditional academic path."The Government, by introducing the apprenticeship levy, made a pretty firm commitment, to encourage employers to get involved in this. T-Levels is part of that, addressing it at a slightly younger age and it’s all trying to solve this pipeline problem of actually how do you get people with the requisite skills into companies and from much more diverse backgrounds.”The Government has developed Technical Levels, which will provide technical training at A-Level standard and will be taught in selected colleges from September 2020.](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/duoKld_p0cCwQkEiBfa7Cg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/evening_standard_239/0369c842a0531dc91763c20437cdb3f7)
![Euan Blair, eldest son of the former Prime Minister, is set to expand his tech apprenticeship scheme for school leavers after raising $16million.Blair is the co-founder of WhiteHat, which gives school-leavers across the capital one-to-one coaching and tuition for qualifications while they work for major employers such as Facebook and Clifford Chance in digital careers including software development and data analysis.Speaking to Future London about increasing the number of women and BAME people in tech, Blair's enthusiasm is clear. He said: “We’re really engaging a diverse group of people here and making sure that they get the opportunity to be successful.“There is not necessarily one organisation that will go and solve every part of this because we spend our time working with young people who we think will become future leaders and go on to access great careers.“Our vision is to create a diverse group of future leaders, so people like them can get access to opportunities they might not otherwise get access to. Because the stats for graduates are pretty alarming, if you have claimed free school meals, you’ve only got a four per cent chance of going to a Russell Group university, which is a real problem. And around half of those on graduate programmes were educated at private school.”WhiteHat recruits many of its apprentices through multi-academy trusts in the capital such as Ark, Oasis and Harris Federations. It then runs 12-18 months programmes, in small cohorts, that provide apprentices with jobs and coaching, both online and in person.They have partnered with a number of organisations including Flatiron School, General Assembly and Mind Gym to curate the courses.Co-founder of WhiteHat Sophie Adelman shares this passionate vision for higher education. She said: “In every single role these days you need to be well versed in how to deal with data. In software engineering, we just have a massive skills gap in the country, and I know there’s been a lot of investment in certain schools with coding clubs, but the population we primarily deal with, the career starters who come from more diverse backgrounds […] those schools do not have the resources or the teachers to actually teach software engineering or coding so you have a lack of a pipeline coming from these areas and the companies are really struggling to find the talent.”WhiteHat, which was founded in 2016, now has more than 750 apprentices, of which 65 per cent are from BAME backgrounds. Almost half claimed free school meals, and seven per cent are from care leaver or refugee backgrounds.The apprenticeship startup hopes to expand its programme to Leeds later this year, with a view to opening new programmes in Manchester as well.Should government bear responsibility for apprenticeship programmes? Euan answered: “You need a multi-tier system where government can be involved in further education colleges, alongside private enterprise, charities and startups. I think that’s ultimately how you make sure you’ve got a suitable diversity of approaches.“From a government perspective, it’s great that actually apprenticeships are one of the few issues, particularly at the moment, that every single political party and every part of the political spectrum all seem to agree on. We need more of them, we need different routes into great careers that aren’t just through the traditional academic path."The Government, by introducing the apprenticeship levy, made a pretty firm commitment, to encourage employers to get involved in this. T-Levels is part of that, addressing it at a slightly younger age and it’s all trying to solve this pipeline problem of actually how do you get people with the requisite skills into companies and from much more diverse backgrounds.”The Government has developed Technical Levels, which will provide technical training at A-Level standard and will be taught in selected colleges from September 2020.](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/keudFgNfu0JIRnRNhVqd5g--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/evening_standard_239/b6e9b72edeffd80787299a6b504bb5d5)
Euan Blair, eldest son of the former Prime Minister, is set to expand his tech apprenticeship scheme for school leavers after raising $16million.
Blair is the co-founder of WhiteHat, which gives school-leavers across the capital one-to-one coaching and tuition for qualifications while they work for major employers such as Facebook and Clifford Chance in digital careers including software development and data analysis.
Speaking to Future London about increasing the number of women and BAME people in tech, Blair's enthusiasm is clear. He said: “We’re really engaging a diverse group of people here and making sure that they get the opportunity to be successful.
“There is not necessarily one organisation that will go and solve every part of this because we spend our time working with young people who we think will become future leaders and go on to access great careers.
“Our vision is to create a diverse group of future leaders, so people like them can get access to opportunities they might not otherwise get access to. Because the stats for graduates are pretty alarming, if you have claimed free school meals, you’ve only got a four per cent chance of going to a Russell Group university, which is a real problem. And around half of those on graduate programmes were educated at private school.”
WhiteHat recruits many of its apprentices through multi-academy trusts in the capital such as Ark, Oasis and Harris Federations. It then runs 12-18 months programmes, in small cohorts, that provide apprentices with jobs and coaching, both online and in person.
They have partnered with a number of organisations including Flatiron School, General Assembly and Mind Gym to curate the courses.
Co-founder of WhiteHat Sophie Adelman shares this passionate vision for higher education. She said: “In every single role these days you need to be well versed in how to deal with data. In software engineering, we just have a massive skills gap in the country, and I know there’s been a lot of investment in certain schools with coding clubs, but the population we primarily deal with, the career starters who come from more diverse backgrounds […] those schools do not have the resources or the teachers to actually teach software engineering or coding so you have a lack of a pipeline coming from these areas and the companies are really struggling to find the talent.”
WhiteHat, which was founded in 2016, now has more than 750 apprentices, of which 65 per cent are from BAME backgrounds. Almost half claimed free school meals, and seven per cent are from care leaver or refugee backgrounds.
The apprenticeship startup hopes to expand its programme to Leeds later this year, with a view to opening new programmes in Manchester as well.
Should government bear responsibility for apprenticeship programmes? Euan answered: “You need a multi-tier system where government can be involved in further education colleges, alongside private enterprise, charities and startups. I think that’s ultimately how you make sure you’ve got a suitable diversity of approaches.
“From a government perspective, it’s great that actually apprenticeships are one of the few issues, particularly at the moment, that every single political party and every part of the political spectrum all seem to agree on. We need more of them, we need different routes into great careers that aren’t just through the traditional academic path.
"The Government, by introducing the apprenticeship levy, made a pretty firm commitment, to encourage employers to get involved in this. T-Levels is part of that, addressing it at a slightly younger age and it’s all trying to solve this pipeline problem of actually how do you get people with the requisite skills into companies and from much more diverse backgrounds.”
The Government has developed Technical Levels, which will provide technical training at A-Level standard and will be taught in selected colleges from September 2020.
