Local Dignitary supports local Enterprise

A Local Dignitary has offered to fund a young person’s apprenticeship, to support a Birmingham based enterprise; which provides unemployed young people with practical experience and training to start their own business.
Lord Digby Baron Jones of Birmingham has offered to pay the wages of Apprentice Aundre Brown, through his Community Fund administered by Birmingham and Black Country Community Foundation (BBCCF), to support local enterprise Made By Young People (MBYP).
MBYP takes young people who are from workless household’s, affected by the Not in Employment, Education and Training (NEETS) and enables them to develop entrepreneurial skills and earn a legitimate income during this tough economic climate, through learning about Print & Promotions and turning it into a business.
Lord Jones was impressed with MBYP after an initial encounter with Lee Blake founder of the enterprise six months ago and wanted to show his support by offering to pay for one of the trainees to become an Apprentice for the Social Enterprise arm of MBYP, called 50fifty clothing.
Lord Jones commented “I was extremely impressed with the initiative taken by local entrepreneurs from Made By Young People, who are doing wonderful work with our future generations ensuring that they have the skills required to innovate and find entrepreneurial methods to help them through these tough times. I am pleased that I can be a part of it by supporting such a great enterprise”
Aundre Brown was one of the trainees who applied for the Apprenticeship and was successfully recruited this month.
Aundre commented “The Road 2 Entrepreneurship program has been a fantastic experience. The knowledge and the skills I’ve gained as a result, have broadened my understanding of Social Enterprise. It’s helped me to become a well-rounded individual; and for this, I am most grateful for this opportunity.”
Founder Lee Blake said “We are very grateful for the opportunity given to us by Lord Digby Jones, to support a young person like Aundre and help him progress from training to actual employment; it is truly a remarkable story and a great example for all the young people that we work with. With support from people like Lord Jones, as well as the work of BBCCF, we hope to make a difference and do a little to reduce the record number of unemployment in the West Midlands”