MAKING THE LEAP

MAKING THE LEAP

When we look at all the incredibly inspiring people who have been responsible for setting up charities and who are doing such amazing work to help others, it is not unusual to expect that they were born with a calling to change the world.

Tunde Banjoko OBE, the founder of Making The Leap (a charity that is changing young people’s lives), is the first to say he had no such aspirations when growing up. He wanted to be in Finance, (his first degree was in Economics) but circumstances dictated otherwise. In the early 1990s, Tunde found himself out of work, with two young children to support. He retrained to do an HNC in software engineering.

If he could not achieve his desire of getting into the City, then Tech was his second choice. He worked as a cabbie while doing his HNC to make ends meet. When he finished his HNC he saw an opportunity with the local authority to set up a project to help local unemployed people into work. Because cold calling was involved they wanted someone with a sales background, which Tunde had; they wanted someone who could set up a database which his HNC enabled him to do and they wanted someone who knew something about unemployment and Tunde had first hand experience, having been unemployed himself for two years.

Tunde applied and, being so perfectly qualified in every respect, got the job - which at the time, he genuinely believed he would only spend six months doing.

But the stars had aligned not just to change Tunde’s life but also the lives of so many others that he has subsequently helped.

Whilst the local authority had a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve, they had no clue how to go about it and so Tunde was left to his own devices to shape it as he saw fit. He managed to develop a service that was not simply working efficiently but genuinely helping people.

After six months, when it was time in Tunde’s grand scheme to move into one of his chosen fields, he began to realise something. His workplace was based in Harlesden High Street and on his way to and from the office he would bump into the people that the service had helped who would stop Tunde and tell him what they were now doing and that their reversed fortunes were all down to the work that he was doing. When he saw that he was genuinely changing lives, he knew he had to keep on doing it. Thirty one years later, Making The Leap exists as ‘an innovative grassroots societal change charity that aims to make a big difference. From direct delivery, to advocacy and leadership, we refuse to stay in our lane and believe passionately that those we exist to serve have the right to be anything they want to be.’

Tunde says that even though doing this work was not his initial plan, he always had two principles in life, principles he still upholds today and that he considers to be his north star when things go wrong.

“I wanted to be the employer I had always wanted to have but never had as a young Black man. I had some very bad experiences which painfully stuck with me so I was determined to be different, to be a good employer. Equally important, I promised myself that I would always do whatever I could to make sure we were doing the very best for those for whom we exist to serve and that I could look myself in the mirror and know that to be true.”

What does being a good employer look like to Tunde?

“Valuing the people that do the work, without whose labours we could achieve nothing. Recognising my colleagues, being supportive of them, being transparent. Helping their growth. This latter one comes from a personal experience where I wanted to do a Masters degree and I knew my employers at the time had a training budget so I asked them. Their response was ‘why would YOU want to do a Masters?’. That stayed with me.”

It seems it is a goal Tunde has achieved as some of his colleagues at Making the Leap have been there for 30 years, from day one; and for a small charity who cannot afford to pay the highest of salaries, that is no mean feat.

Making The Leap is about delivery to young people focussing primarily on soft skills. They work in schools that have large numbers of pupils from less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds providing interventions around orientating young people into opportunities that they may not be aware of. They take big corporates into schools, give them a first interview, take the pupils into the City for work experience and also try and help the most disengaged to transition successfully into the workplace.

They also work with older children providing simulated work environments and exercises which teach about teamwork, how to present yourself, how to deal with stressful situations in the workplace again businesses are brought in to give sessions and these also take place in the businesses themselves. Making the Leap attempts to match young people with specific employers so enabling them to get jobs. One on one mentoring is a major part of the programme.

Another strand to Making The Leap is their leadership and advocacy work which began in 2017. The charity works with about 10,000 young people a year - but obviously that barely touches the sides when you consider the scale of the social mobility challenge in the UK. Tunde realised that even if the charity were ten times its size it would still barely make a dent in the problem. But what if every single corporate, every single major employer was involved? Obviously that would make a difference. But what could Making The Leap do to enable this? Their reputation gained over the years gave them credibility, so they came up with a concept of giving businesses ‘bouquets’ to congratulate and encourage them for their work in social mobility - an act which would obviously trigger attention from the businesses’ competition and thereby prompt them to also participate. To this end, Tunde and Making the Leap launched the UK Social Mobility Awards - the Oscars for social mobility. This has turned into a year long calendar of events including the Social Mobility Business Seminar where businesses get together for a deep dive into the issues. There is a Social Mobility Podcast where CEOs talk about Diversity and Inclusion and three years ago a Social Mobility Day was introduced.

Tunde is determined to get the business world more involved because changing the lives of young people means, ultimately, changing the entire world for the better.

“The true wealth of our country is its population, particularly its young people. We need to get business to recognise that and to make sure we are not missing out on so much of the talent that exists simply because those young people happen to be born poor. It’s not because they are lazy or because they don’t have the ability - it is because by being poor their opportunities are curtailed. I am on a mission to get as many businesses as possible to see that helping these people is a great investment for future prosperity”.

Tunde is passionate about ensuring that Making The Leap is bigger than him; the work they do is massively important and needs to continue long after he leaves. He sees his timescale as five years to exit but judging by his initial six month plan, maybe he will still be helping young, unemployed people in another 28 years.

To find out more about Making The Leap and to contribute either by participating or donating visit https://makingtheleap.org.uk/ 

“I am on a mission to get as many businesses as possible to see that helping these people is a great investment for future prosperity”.