The Independent launches Skill Up Step Up campaign to support London's jobless youth

Today The Independent and the Evening Standard launch Skill Up Step Up, a joint Christmas appeal to help unemployed young people into work through sustainable jobs or apprenticeships and transform their lives.

We have received £1m from Barclays and partnered with the Barclays LifeSkills programme to provide grant funding over two years, for up to five charities, that will upskill disadvantaged jobless youths by giving them employability training.

Our first charity grantee is Springboard, a UK-wide group based in east London that makes jobless people “work ready” and has an outstanding track record of finding them positions in the hospitality industry.