Building Lives, the construction training charity, is to close at the end of June.
The organisation said it had been forced to cease all operations because of a lack of funding. Its 16 staff have been served redundancy notices.
Building Lives was started by Lakehouse founder Steve Rawlings in 2010. By 2015, it had a workforce of almost 40 full-time employees running 10 academies in London, and training almost 450 people with construction skills.
A statement from the organisation said: “Given the skills crisis in London, it is incredibly disappointing that we are unable to continue with our model, especially as it provides huge value for money for the taxpayer.
“Over the next month, Building Lives’ main focus will to be complete all training programmes where possible and to assist remaining learners to gain employment or further learning in the construction industry.
“Training academies will be handed back to Building Lives’ partners to determine their future purpose from 30 June 2016.”
Building Lives managing director Sian Workman said: “In order to continue operating for another year, Building Lives needed £900,000 to deliver 380 ‘careerships’ across four training academies based in London’s council estates. That’s a drop in the ocean compared to how much money is spent for no guaranteed job outcomes.
“To put a young person through a Building Lives traineeship costs just £4,000. On average eight out of 10 people on our careership training programmes go into work or apprenticeships.
“This contrasts with the cost of a young person being out of work to the UK economy of £165,000. Last year, the Further Education (Skills Funding Agency) budget in England alone was £7.5bn. At the same time, the Construction Industry Training Board raised £120m from across the construction sector to tackle the skills shortage.
“The bottom line is, although a careership may not have fitted with existing government funding criteria, it led to real construction jobs, helping reduce unemployment and the skills shortage – ultimately, benefiting us all.
“I am deeply disappointed we have failed in our attempts to secure the financial support needed from government and the construction sector to continue.”
