First recipients of new £10m fund to accelerate skills development in the UK announced

Image credit: National Literacy Trust

• The Landmark Grants Programme will award up to £10million worth of grants from The Goldsmiths’ Company Charity in three tranches between 2023 and 2035
  

• The programme aims to maximise the Charity’s impact by supporting projects that alleviate poverty, create opportunities, and make a lasting impact through skills development
  

• Grants of £500,000 awarded to Aston University Engineering Academy, the National Literary Trust, St. Giles Trust, and St. Paul’s Cathedral

Friday 10 November 2023 - The Goldsmiths' Company Charity is delighted to announce the first four recipients of its new £10m Landmark Grants Programme – designed to accelerate skills development in the UK – Aston University Engineering Academy, National Literacy Trust, St Giles, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, who will each receive grants of £500,000 towards their projects.

Professor Charles Mackworth-Young, Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company said: “The Landmark Grants Programme underscores the Goldsmiths’ Company Charity’s determination to increase the impact of our charitable giving and our enduring focus on the development of skills in our trade and beyond. The four grants announced today will help these organisations to achieve real change in the skills people develop and the outcomes they achieve.”

The Landmark Grants Programme - which will award up to £10million worth of grants from The Goldsmiths’ Company Charity in three tranches between 2023 and 2035 and will form part of the Company’s 700th anniversary celebrations in 2027 - has made its first four awards to:

Aston University Engineering Academy

Aston University Engineering Academy (AUEA) has been awarded a £500,000 Landmark Grant towards the development of a new ‘Goldsmiths’ Institute’, A dedicated specialist skills hub, developed with the support of the Goldsmiths’ Centre in London, the Goldsmiths’ Institute will embed skills and design-based training within the AUEA curriculum through Years 9 to Sixth Form. It is modelled on Aston University’s successful Institute of Technology (which drives interaction, training and talent pipelines between educators, learners, and employers).

Professor Stephen Garrett Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences said:

“The awarding of The Goldsmiths’ Company Landmark project provides the opportunity to develop a new Goldsmiths’ Institute in Birmingham which will be part of Aston University Engineering Academy.

Building on the success of The Goldsmiths’ Centre in London, the Institute will provide a direct skills training centre for students and staff, creating a sustained talent pipeline for Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter supporting the city’s young people to obtain the emerging and advanced skills needed to be part of the future workforce.

This new development ties in with Aston University’s 2030 strategy and our commitment to embrace our city and enrich its cultural, physical and socio-economic environment.”

As Birmingham’s only University Technology College (UTC), Aston University’s on-campus Engineering Academy (AUEA) provides the very best 13-19 academic and technical education for successful and rewarding careers in Engineering, Health and Business. Serving the inner city, over 65% of AUEA’s students come from deprived backgrounds.

The National Literacy Trust

The National Literacy Trust (NLT) has been awarded a £501,790 Landmark Grant for their ambitious three-year programme, which aims to improve the literacy skills of disadvantaged children across 25 schools in Bradford by empowering teachers to deliver a powerful sequence of memorable cultural experiences and curated follow up lessons.

Fiona Evans, Director of School Programmes at The National Literacy Trust said:

“The National Literacy Trust is indebted to the Goldsmiths Company Charity for their four-year commitment to improving the literacy skills of 500 primary school children in Bradford. Through the Goldsmiths 500 Challenge, we will use the power of cultural experiences to support children to become more motivated and independent readers and writers.

We know that literacy changes everything, and is the key to knowledge, confidence and inspiration. If a child grows up without the tools to communicate, without books to read or opportunities to write, it will be harder for them to get where they want to go. So, we are very grateful to the Goldsmiths Company Charity for this opportunity to help children in Bradford change their stories.”

NLT is an independent charity dedicated to raising literacy levels across the UK. For the past twenty-five years, they have worked to improve the reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in the UK's most disadvantaged communities, where one in three people have low literacy levels.

St. Giles

A £500,000 Landmark Grant has been awarded to St. Giles to fund their Peer Empowerment Programme (PEP), which will empower 150 prisoners in 5 prisons (3 of which are women’s prisons) to develop new skills and gain recognised level 3 qualifications in Advice and Guidance. The industry standard qualification, supervision, management, and on the job training, plus pathways into placements, provided through the PEP help to create long-term, transformative change for those leaving prison.

Nicky Park, Director of Criminal Justice and Women’s Services, said:

“We are immensely grateful to the Goldsmiths’ Company Charity for the award of a Landmark grant of £500,000 towards our work in prisons, as part of our Peer Empowerment in Prisons programme. Underpinning all our charity's services is our Peer Advisor programme, which is a structured package of support and training to enable people who have overcome barriers to help them to move their own lives forward and help others in the process. People in prison are amongst some of the most disadvantaged people in society and empowering them with positive opportunities to boost their skills and confidence delivers benefits for everyone, through reduced re-offending.”

St Giles is an award-winning charity that empowers people who are held back by poverty, exploitation, mental ill-health, substance abuse, and experience(s) of the criminal justice system, to build a better future – for themselves and those they care about. They help them to achieve this through support, advice, and training. For 60 years the Trust has worked in prisons and communities across the UK.

St. Paul’s Cathedral

A £500,000 Landmark Grant has been awarded to St. Paul’s Cathedral as part of a major heritage restoration and conservation project of its Cupola, Ball, and Cross - the structure that rises from the Golden Gallery on top of the Dome, which at 365ft high is an iconic symbol of the City of London. Dating from 1710, and last restored in 1821, the Cupola is now reaching the end of its structural life and requires extensive essential repairs. The multi-million-pound project will raise awareness of heritage craft skills and train apprentices in the skills required for the restoration, such as masonry, lead working and gilding.

The Very Reverend Andrew Tremlett, Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, said:

“Our partnership with the Goldsmiths’ Company and its Charity is not only historic but special. Having supported almost every major restoration project we have had since the Great Fire of London, their coat of arms is under our dome.

We would like to warmly thank the Goldsmiths’ Company Charity for their very generous grant, which will not only support vital repairs of the Cupola’s upper Dome including the Ball and Cross, but will help train apprentices in the skills required for the restoration. This partnership presents us with a great opportunity to celebrate St Paul’s heritage and the skills of all the people responsible for building and sustaining it, from Christopher Wren to those working on this new project.

With the help of the Charity, St Paul’s will be preserved in all its glory for worshippers and visitors for generations to come, offering people from different backgrounds and communities a place to explore their faith in the heart of London.”

About the Goldsmiths’ Company Charity

The Goldsmiths’ Company Charity is a grant funder that was founded in the late nineteenth century with investment income on assets given by the Goldsmiths’ Company over the centuries. Its Board of Trustees is made up of members of the Goldsmiths’ Company’s Court of Assistants (equivalent to a board of non-executive directors).

The Goldsmiths’ Company Charity is focused on improving the life chances of people and communities. Today it does thisby awarding grants across four priority areas - support for our trade & craft; support for development of technical and vocational skills; support for activities in the City of London and at national institutions; support for activities that improve life chances, currently in the criminal justice sector, and through literacy, numeracy and oracy interventions at early years and primary age.