
Employability and Skills
Employability is central to Shaw Trust. Supporting people into the workplace, especially those with complex needs is a vital service – valuable to individuals, families, communities, businesses and the economy. Careers support helps people improve their life chances as they enter and sustain meaningful work and tackle in-work poverty.
Shaw Trust delivers major contracts on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions, the Education Skills Funding Agency, devolved nations and combined authorities.
Our contracts include:

Children's Services
Each year we support thousands of children and young people to build the skills they need for the future.
We work with some of the country’s most vulnerable children and young people. They are often at risk of poor educational attainment, social exclusion, exploitation and substance misuse issues. By taking a restorative and reflective approach we build resilience in young people empowering them to improve their life chances. This belief in potential underlies our commitment to do our best to support each child’s transition into adulthood.
In addition to our work supporting young people in our communities, we are one of largest private providers of children’s residential homes through Homes2Inspire. Started in 2007 Homes2Inspire provides children a safe place to live and leaving care independent accommodation.
Our contracts include:

Health and Wellbeing
Good mental and physical wellbeing is vital to support a healthy workforce and work is a key driver for good health and wellbeing.
At Shaw Trust our aim is to help people improve their mental and physical health and to strengthen and take control of their overall wellbeing. We work in partnership with local groups and commissioners to support the wellbeing of employees and those who are unemployed. We connect people with the services they need, when they need them. Working across communities with a wide array of local partners we ensure those supported can improve their everyday living, tackle levels of anxiety, become more independent and confident, meet new people, get better skills and move into work which supports their health and lifestyle goals.
Our primary care contracts include:
- Thrive-into-Work
- Thrive-into-Work London
- Let’s Talk Employment Haringey and Enfield
- West London Works
- Working Win
Our secondary care contracts include:

Learning and Skills
For 16-24 year olds
There are many pathways to start your career – our traineeships, apprenticeships, short courses and academies will build your confidence, increase your independence and provide those key skills, experience and qualifications that employers are looking for. Start your Future
Adult Education
If you’re looking to upskill in your current role or retrain within a new career, stand out from the crowd with our programmes, courses and qualifications that will support you to achieve your personal and career goals. Change your Future
Employers
Enabling full potential and equipping teams with the skills to be effective in their roles is what we do. We can help your workforce develop from entry level pre-employment training all the way up to executive development with tailored and cost-effective solutions. Employers
Schools, academies and colleges
Our support for schools, academies and colleges includes tailored training for individual roles, achieving high-level standards for CEIAG, information for students so they can make informed post-16 choices and boosting the skills and knowledge of adults in your wider community. Aspire to Inspire

Multi-Academy Trusts
Shaw Trust is the sponsor of Shaw Education Trust. We believe education is a pathway to improving opportunity, raising aspirations and building the foundations of meaningful employment.
As a multi-academy trust sponsor we believe every child should have the opportunity to be successful whatever their starting point. Our commitment is to improve, accelerate and enable ambitious life goals among all young people in our academies.
Our schools educate children of all ages, ambition and ability. We work with children, leaders and teachers to create the very best opportunities for all their futures.
Social Enterprises
We bring our commitment to good employment to life through our social enterprises. Independent not-for-profit businesses, our social enterprises employ, train and support disabled adults in meaningful work activity.
Our enterprises include Accessibility Services, DLF, Forth Sector, and a number of garden centres where we sell gardening supplies and offer training internships.
Our service offerings include: