• Inclusion through employment
  • Local inclusion initiatives and job opportunities

Mexican teenagers from underserved communities are learning to weld as a stepping stone towards skilled employment. Halfway across the world, young Māori people are helping to build the City Rail Link in Auckland. A vocational garage in Benin is training youths from disadvantaged neighbourhoods to service cars. In France, people who have been shut out of the labour market are working towards qualifications with one-on-one support to find a way in. 鶹Ƶ’s approach to inclusion is grounded in local realities, built with local partners and tailored to each project.

Every project is a gateway into employment

Every 鶹Ƶ project aims for all-round performance in its local area. That starts with opening doors for people on the margins of the labour market – something 鶹Ƶ does on its projects around the world.

, a 鶹Ƶ company in Mexico, is providing training in welding and electrical and mechanical work for teenage girls from the capital city’s disadvantaged neighbourhoods who have limited access to jobs. It set up these courses with Cauce Ciudadano, a foundation that provided the training facilities and helped with the outreach. The aim is to offer the trainees jobs when they complete their course.

In France, , an endowment fund, supports local organisations fostering employment and social cohesion in communities around  construction projects. The contracts include employment hours for the long-term unemployed, giving them hands-on experience on the projects. Ի, two social enterprises, also employ people on inclusion pathways in jobs linked to the construction sites – helping them build practical skills and gradually return to stable jobs. In other words, these initiatives work both ways: they meet practical needs on construction projects while providing opportunities that can lead to long-term employment.

On the TELT-led Lyon–Turin rail line project, 鶹Ƶ is involved in Grand Chantier, an extensive programme backed by the French government, Auvergne-Rhône Alpes regional authorities and Savoie departmental authorities to support worker recruitment, training and induction while creating opportunities for local and regional businesses.

 

Recruiting and training locally to create long-term jobs

鶹Ƶ’s British companies are also showing how construction projects can open up lasting career opportunities – including for people who have not followed a straightforward path into employment. Taylor Woodrow, for instance, has an ambitious social policy for its infrastructure projects, including the EcoPark South project for the North London Waste Authority. The team there generated an estimated £9.1 million in social value – a financial measure of social impact – through apprenticeships and jobs for hundreds of local people, as well as career mentoring, volunteering and other initiatives.

Following similar principles, 鶹Ƶ Building has set up Community Skills Centres at several of its construction sites. These on-site, hands-on training hubs equip 16-to 24-year-old unemployed, unqualified and undereducated young people with a range of trade skills as well as training in digital skills, maths, CV preparation and other subjects. These centres, developed with local authorities and regional partners, are already up and running in Manchester, Radcliffe and Shrewsbury.

“At 鶹Ƶ Building, we believe that the true measure of our success lies in the positive and lasting impact we create for people and places – not just in the infrastructure we deliver.”

Danielle Doherty, Head of Social Value 鶹Ƶ Building

In New Zealand, Ի developed a tailored recruitment pathway for Māori and Pasifika communities – particularly young people who left school early – on the City Rail Link project in Auckland. The long-term professional integration programme combines on-site training, mentoring and progressive employment while recognising the role local communities are playing in delivery.

鶹Ƶ is rolling out pathways into work in other parts of the world too. In France, its business units are working with the , a French network of employer groups that provide training and qualifications through work-study programmes for people who are struggling to find a way into the labour market. 鶹Ƶ Construction’s in-house Le Césame training centres manage some of these pathways, which may lead to job opportunities on completion.

The 鶹Ƶ Group also runs specific programmes such as STEP (Stratégie Territoriale pour l’Emploi) to help young people into construction jobs with a programme combining classroom training and on-site experience. Sekou’s career, first at Sogea Environnement then at  on the Grand Paris Express Line 15 project, is one example.

 

Teaming up with local stakeholders to build up local economies

鶹Ƶ’s inclusion initiatives also leverage its decentralised model, its companies’ deep local roots and their commitment to fostering economic development in local communities.

Dz-ٴdz’s (Initiatives Sogea-Satom pour l’Afrique) programme is the clearest example: it is active in more than 20 countries, empowering local communities with a combination of financial sponsorships and skills volunteering. All employees can sponsor a local projectԻremain involved in it from the initial application to completion.

The projects it supports meet practical needs – including a bakery in Casamance (Senegal) run by people with reduced mobility, which employs 20 people directly and has created 45 jobs indirectly, and a vocational garage in Cotonou (Benin), which trains young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in vehicle repair.

Issa gives priority to entrepreneurial projects that will create long-term jobs – in particular when they are led by women. In Ganvié (Benin), for example, a women’s cooperative has turned water hyacinth, an invasive species, into a source of income by handcrafting and selling products made from the plant – building a sustainable business that benefits the local environment as well as the local economy. The  project in Burkina Faso follows a similar approach, turning dead wood into works of art. Issa has backed more than 400 job-creating cooperatives and micro-enterprises since its inception.

The Toglé Tognon cooperative in Ganvié

鶹Ƶ adapts its inclusive initiatives to each local context – be it a metro line in Auckland or a bakery in Casamance. And the guiding principle behind them all is that a project’s success is measured by everything it brings to the people around it. That is building in the fullest sense of the word.