Can you help us close the opportunity gap in London?

Our vision is a London where everyone can flourish in their lives, no matter their age, background or circumstances.  When it comes to learning, we’ve got it covered, but our students tell us that the missing link to help them progress is work experience.

A former student Georgia explained the value of doing a work placement:

‘During my time at ELATT I secured two work placements where I learnt extensive skills in the business administration sector and also how to be part of a working environment, which I lacked experience in until now. I also achieved multiple qualifications as well as gaining experience that will help me in the future.’

Ready for Industry

Our students are so passionate about gaining these opportunities that they have created a campaign with Citizens UK to raise this need amongst businesses in East London.  Here they are campaigning for work experience opportunities in the Olympic Park, Stratford.

We want to help our students find opportunities in tech, corporate, education and a range of other environments to enable them to develop their practical skills and apply what they are learning in class.

The ELATT learning community is made up of a diverse range of students including young people with autism and learning difficulties, refugees and migrants and adults returning to work. Our students study Business, IT, Web design, Media, English and Maths and take part in a wide variety of extra-curricular and community activities.

Hear from Freddie

‘The young people at ELATT have diverse and often complex needs. We also know that we do not yet have the skills and confidence to navigate the system and access the support that we need. While the urgency to work becomes ever greater in an environment of high youth unemployment in East London...We want a mentor to support us.’

In this video our Digital Media Production student Freddie tells you about his current studies, his hopes for the future, and why mentoring and experience will make all the difference to him.

How you can help:

We know that the first step towards employment is the hardest: with no recent work experience, only 30% of our students get into work.  But once they have experience, 80% of our students move into employment.  Be part of this change: our Industry Partners support us by offering mentoring, work experience and work placements to our talented and dedicated students. Work experience could be for 1 or 2 weeks or for 1 day a week over 3 months – this can be tailored to what suits your company.

Please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you think you can help or to suggest other organisations you know who may be able to offer work experience of any duration to our students.

ELATT loves its newest Industry Partner Second Home!

Read all about our work together here: 

Second Home's Blog Page

4th July, 8.30 a.m. at techUK

If you’re having trouble spending your Apprenticeship Levy, you are not alone. Only 8% of the Apprenticeship Levy taken from businesses this year has been spent on apprenticeship training.
The downside is, any funding that remains in your National Apprenticeship Service accounts after 24 months (i.e. after 6 April 2019) will expire.
This is why we’ve put together a FREE breakfast seminar designed for people who are responsible for allocating their company’s Apprenticeship Levy.

Join Our Free Breakfast Seminar

By attending the seminar, you will learn about how other companies have engaged with apprenticeships through case studies and how you can embed an apprenticeship strategy into your company’s existing recruitment and training plans.

The Seminar Includes:
1. Brief Overview of Apprenticeships and the Levy
2. Incentives: Government assistance and added incentives to help you get the most out of your Levy
3. Looking ahead: Writing an Apprenticeship Strategy that can be embedded into your existing recruitment, learning and development strategies. Case Studies of different approaches that other employers have used
4. Diverse Workforce: Using apprenticeships to diversify your workforce
5. Logistics: Step by step guide to the process

Date: 4th July 2018
Time: 8.30am-10.00am
Location: techUK, 10 St Bride St, London, EC4A 4AD

As there are only a limited number of spaces available, it’d be great to know if you’d be interested in attending, but in the meantime please don’t hesitate to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you would like any further information.

More about ELATT

ELATT is an education charity based in Hackney, East London, that has helped disadvantaged Londoners move into technology jobs for more than 30 years.

Watch a brief introduction to ELATT Read our Impact Report

ELATT, East London’s only Grade 1 FE provider, welcomed the Minister for Skills and Apprenticeships, Rt Hon Anne Milton MP, to their newly-renovated Hackney learning centre today. In her first formal engagement since last week’s reshuffle, the Minister met ELATT staff and students studying a variety of career pathways.

Chief Executive, Anthony, who is also shortlisted for this year’s TES Awards FE Leader of the Year, said:

“We were delighted to welcome the Minister to ELATT to see staff and students in action, and to discuss the importance of our work supporting adult returners and young people who have benefited from the 1:1 support and personal touch we offer.
“It was a great for the Minister to hear first-hand from students about the challenges they face when entering or returning to FE, and our staff really appreciated the chance to convey their views in person to the Minister. It was a pleasure as a specialist provider to share our experiences with the Minister and offer insights into our day-to-day operations; from meeting individual needs to organisational planning processes.”

Pascale, an adult returner studying a Business Administration course, said:

“I was impressed that a minister would take time out of her busy schedule to visit a training centre like ELATT, she seemed genuinely interested in my journey, not least the difficulties of raising three disabled children whilst learning. ELATT plays a very important role in my community, and I hope they keep doing their good work training people like me and helping us re-enter the workforce with confidence after a long period out of work.”

 Janet Usoro, Student Support Coordinator, a former ELATT student, said:

“I enjoyed the Minister’s visit and it was great to hear her own history as a nurse in my community and experiences of working in Hackney. It was an opportunity to tell the Minister about how ELATT has helped me and students here. The 1:1 support I received inspired me to do the same for students and come back as a Student Support Coordinator.
“The Minister was very interested in my educational journey with ELATT and life as a single mother. In fact she gave me a very helpful tip about the media apprenticeship degree programme at the BBC, which I’ll definitely be looking up for my daughter. Discussing my journey face-to-face with the Minister, and the work I now do supporting students, was a brilliant way to the start the week!”

Skills Minister, Anne Milton said: 

“I was hugely impressed by what I saw at ELATT and to hear first-hand from students about how their lives have been turned round by the education they have received at ELATT.
“Regardless of your circumstances, it is never too late to unlock your potential through education and training. The students and dedicated staff I met at ELATT are a testament to that.  
“It is vital that we encourage more people to seize the opportunity to learn throughout their lives, which will help us to build the skilled workforce our economy needs.
“I was so impressed with the determination and passion of all the staff and learners. Well done to them all.”

We had our Capability workshop on Thursday 7th December 2017 at 10am-12pm at Simple Gifts, 117 Mansford St, Basement Suite, London E1 6LX.
We had the opportunity to try out some amazing experiences in activities. The activities included:

• Massaging Henna
• Guitar Playing
• Makeup
• Hair Styling
• Sewing
• Nail Art
• Mini Facials
• Language Exchange

That day we enjoyed all available activities .We think the workshop is a very good idea because some people have chance to practise and learn something different ,so for example we learn how to play guitar that was very interesting and finding out how to play on the guitar was very relaxing and also we find the Massaging was very popular so we think all people like to relax.

We learnt something new as well like henna. It was first time we have chance to see how it works.

We think that all activities was very important because all students get some new knowledge and have chance to learn new skills also that excellent time to practice English , speaking with people from the community, making friends and it was very nice to see all have chat and discuss about everything.

We are looking forward for next Capability Workshop.

By Magdalena, Anette and Shugui | E3 HACKNEY EQUAL VOICES 3508

Read more interesting stories

21st of June marked National Writing Day, and students from our E3 ICT Learning Champions contributed to this fun and positive occasion.

Len, Adi and Jacqueline all wrote short stories on the themes of busy lives in London and, randomly, working as a prime minster.

Their teacher, Segs, said: "It was great to see the creativity from the students. They felt inspired by National Writing Day and came up with ideas of what their short stories could be about. It's great to see how creative writing can help literacy."

Please read the short stories here:

‘Maria lived in London 2 years ago. She loved to go to the parks, museums and beach. She was happy when visiting these places. She told me that she became unfriendly because her job was stressful. Now Maria lives in Ibiza, she has another job which it less stressful and she lives in front of the beach. She feels more comfortable, relax and happy.’
By Jacqueline

‘Bibi walked in the street and he sees every one busy and stressed. Bibi is unfriendly because he haven't got time to talk with people. He is working as the Prime Minister and he likes his job. He is married to June. He is married 10 years or more and he is happy in his life.’
By Adi

‘Steve lives in London. He lives in Hackney his job is a park cleaner. Some days he is miserable and some days happy. He works in the open. He moans about the weather, I told him today it is 34`c. That made him more miserable. He said laughing and joking to me sling your hook. The last time it was this hot was back in 1976. I told him if you don`t like heat pack up the job and get a job indoors. I laughed and joked with him and said you should get the Prime Ministers’ job.’
By Len

'I saw in the google fly cars that is new technology I like that. For future is very nice because save the time received to the place very fast that is good. The world technology is going very quick let’s see future how money changes come in the world.'
By Sharafat

Trip to Buckingham Palace

From Elatt on 2 November 2016, my class and I with another class went for trip to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard.It was on Thursday last week from 10am in the morning.

We caught the train from Haggerston at platform 1, the overground toward Highbury and Islington. From Highbury and Islington to Green Park station.

On Wednesday 14th December we hosted the end of term student celebration day. Everyone had a great day and left feeling positive and inspired. The day started off with a series of workshops held by Lloyds Bank who volunteered their time to share their knowledge with us as part of their volunteering scheme. We were really happy to welcome them to ELATT HQ and they really enjoyed chatting to all the students. The workshops they hosted were on financial literacy, business start-ups and CV and cover letters.

On 24th November we had an amazing capability skills sharing workshop event at ELATT HQ. This was hosted by Equal Voices students who kindly swapped their skills for donations to Cancer Research UK. There were knitting sessions, make up sessions and tutorials, massages and A LOT of food which including swapping recipes. Everyone had a great time and generously donated. The students loved teaching each other their skills and treating each other, whilst enjoying food from many different cultures.

On Friday 21^st October Philip Glanville the new Mayor of Hackney visited us at ELATT HQ as part of his tour around East London alongside Citizens UK. We were really excited to be introduced to Mayor Glanville and to showcase our Haggerston centre and get the chance to introduce him to some of our fantastic students. Our Equal Voices students prepared a special presentation for him which was really well received. Mayor Glanville was really engaged throughout and was very interested in finding out more about the project and our wider community project portfolio.