‘Employers are missing out’: Professor Green on giving young jobless a chance at work

Skill Up Step Up: As our campaign gets to work bringing £1m to unemployed 16- to 24-year-olds, the music star tells Emily Phillips about the unique qualities his tough upbringing has given him in his career

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Professor Green is on a mission. Well, he’s often on several missions at a time. Since breaking into the music industry in the Noughties, his career has been chequered with documentary-making, charity collaborations and personal campaigns. His philanthropic efforts have examined Britain’s social issues, from our male mental health crisis and child poverty to homelessness and hunger.

His two decades in the limelight are set against a backdrop of his tough beginning in Hackney. Shortly after signing his first record deal at 21, Professor Green, born Stephen Manderson, was arrested and later came periods of unemployment before he finally hit the charts at 28. So, when he learned that youth unemployment in the capital was up 55 per cent since the pandemic to more than one in five young people out of work, and that The Independent’s Skill Up Step Up Christmas campaign – in collaboration with sister title the Evening Standard – was helping disadvantaged 16- to 24-year-olds upskill and match themselves to the jobs that are available, of course he was willing to be part of the conversation.

“It’s not just about educating the children, it’s about educating employers,” he says. “They’re missing out on brilliantly smart, incredible, brains, who think differently from everyone else that they employ.”

HOW YOU CAN HELP: Click here to make a donation and help us give more young people the training they need to get into work

“I have been unemployed, but I learnt initiative that made me sharp,” he says of our youth being able to retool to find new career options. “So yes, I could read a book, but I could also read a room. But mostly because I dealt with situations that were very dangerous.”

It’s so important that employers also start looking beyond their usual pool of recruits, he says. “Being able to have that sort of social skill, it’s not something that comes naturally to a lot of people, but it could help. You have to encourage employers to listen to people who talk differently to those that they are used to employing.”

Manderson recently told a business school media Q&A that the key to unlocking youth unemployment was by ending unpaid internships. “Because it’s only accessible to those who have the support to work for no money,” he shakes his head. “And there’s a lot of fresh, young talent that can be brought up and given a chance to.”

“Sometimes you feel like you’re banging it against a brick wall,” he says of his cause-driven career. “I’m having the same conversations about mental health since I opened up the floor in 2012-13, after the documentary about homelessness in 2016, since the documentary about child poverty. Especially after what everyone’s just encountered [with the pandemic], I can’t imagine the statistics are getting better, so we have to keep having these conversations.”

Raised by his grandmother, great-grandmother and uncles in a council flat on the Northwold Estate in Clapton after his mother had him at 16, Stephen remembers the “graft” his grandma put in to make ends meet. She’d start her cleaning jobs at 4am moving around the city from banks to private houses, while their extended family all lived in a council flat “as big as my kitchen”. She’d “rob Peter to pay Paul” in order to keep them afloat. “And I’m getting shuffled off in a bedroom while the debt collector comes round.”

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Manderson has made a career from examining the divisions in our society, but sees our lack of social mobility as one of the most difficult changes in recent times. “Your class is not dictated by where you come from or how much money is in your bank,” he says. “It’s about how you treat people. When we were kids, people mucked in and were generous to each other and now that we’re all very divided. The worst thing now is the shrinking middle class.” 

Living close to Stephen’s old stomping ground of Upper Clapton, I see the reliance on food banks daily. “I’ve done a lot of work in food banks,” he says. “That’s the damage that something like Benefits Street does. People have this picture of someone who uses a food bank, but actually, you have families using food banks, where you have to work to live beneath the breadline. They’ll earn their poverty. But people are disinclined to help because they have this horrible stereotype. It’s not the problem for society, that’s their problem. But it really is a problem that belongs to all of us.”

“Because at some point we all need support,” he continues. “And it’s really sad that especially with the youth, if they fall through their certain point. It’s very hard for them to access their future.”

Children who don’t have the financial support often then can’t get a job because they haven’t got the right skills. And with this, the generational poverty continues, which can lead to a cycle of other things such as mental health issues, crime and even homelessness, Manderson says.

“It’s called the science of social deprivation, I believe,” he says on why London has ended up at this point in 2021. “Poverty has got worse over the years and access to education too. Generation to generation areas have become more densely populated, with gentrification people have their faces pushed up against a window. We have access to social media, which makes you feel inadequate for a whole number of reasons.”

Which is why, despite all of his Top 10 singles collaborating with names like Mike Skinner, Lily Allen and Emeli Sandé, TV hosting jobs of shows like Lip Sync Battle and his break into becoming a restauranteur with his business partner Gizzi Erskine, he is still so connected to his working-class roots. “To have achieved what I have and to have got where I am, it’s funny when people say you’re middle class now.” he laughs. “It’s like: no, I’m still as anxious – I still have working-class anxieties. My child will have the security I didn’t have but I still have my mortgage hanging over here.”

The 38-year-old, who has moved away from his “pretty destitute” East London beginnings to a quieter part of the city now he has a nine-month-old son Slimane with his actress fiancee Karima McAdams, keeps his new area under wraps because of his past. “When I was looking for a place I came here, there were all these prams unsupervised, maybe like one or two people around. Then I realised it was the personal trainers watching the kids while the mums were training. It was the most unviolent thing I’ve ever seen. I wanted to live here.”

Manderson feels that London’s community spirit had gone missing for a long time. “If someone had less everyone sort of mucked in to help and, no matter how little someone had, you always offered something to eat or drink. Yeah, it was old school.” That sense of sharing now has had a reboot, he hopes. “We’ve encountered the worst and things take a while to find their shape, but you know we just have to keep on.”

Part of that renewed generosity is coming through the campaign he’s talking to us about today – Just Eat’s Christmas Meal Appeal with Food Cycle that is providing meals for homeless and vulnerable people through the festive period where they’ll match your donations through the app.  

“People are desensitised to homelessness,” says Manderson, who investigated the stark rise in Manchester for his BBC Three documentary Hidden and Homeless five years ago. “It is so normalised that people don’t even look at rough sleepers, they often don’t even give them eye contact, let alone offer them anything. So Just Eat pledging to raise at least 200,000 meals for the homeless is incredible.”

The day after our Zoom call, Prof was heading out carolling with the Just Eat Choir in Charing Cross to raise funds and awareness. “I’m gonna be out singing my heart out,” he smiles. “The reason I have so many songs where other people sing is so I can make a break and talk to people. I’ll encourage people to donate and explain what’s going on – just create a bit of excitement around it.” 

Next stop, Professor Green is back on tour in March, with his opening gig at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire. “I usually come home to London, but this time I’m starting here. It’s amazing to think that it’s been 10 years since I released my second album that I’ve still been touring. I’m gonna train for this tour, because I don’t remember some of the songs.”

Our campaign in a nutshell

What are we doing? We have launched Skill Up Step Up, a £1m initiative in partnership with Barclays LifeSkills to upskill unemployed and disadvantaged young Londoners so they can be “work ready” and step up into sustainable jobs or apprenticeships.

Why are we doing this? Youth unemployment in London has soared by 55 per cent to 105,000 since the start of the pandemic, meaning that 21 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds are jobless at a time of record job vacancies of 1.17 million countrywide. This mismatch, caused largely by an employability skills and experience gap, is leading to wasted lives and billions of pounds of lost productivity for our economy.

How will it work? The £1m from Barclays will provide grant funding over two years for up to five outstanding, handpicked charities that provide disadvantaged jobless young Londoners with employability skills and wrap-around care to get them into the labour market and transform their lives. The charity partners we have announced so far are:

1. Springboard: they will support young people into jobs in the hospitality industry (hotels, restaurants, bars, leisure and tourism) via a three- to six-week programme that includes one-to-one mentoring, soft skills and employability development (confidence, work attitude, CV building, interview practice and time management), practical industry and hard skills training, including food safety and customer service, as well as access to work experience placements.

2. City Gateway: they will get young people work ready with a 12-week employability programme, including digital skills, a work placement, CV and interview skills and a dedicated one-to-one coach, extending to up to 20 weeks if they need English and/or maths qualifications, enabling them to gain entry level positions including apprenticeships in a wide range of sectors, including finance, digital media, marketing, retail, property and IT.

More partner charities will be announced in due course.

How can the young and jobless skill up? If you are aged 16-24 and want to upskill towards a job in hospitality, contact Springboard here.

If you want to upskill towards a job in any other sector, contact City Gateway here.

For tools, tips and learning resources visit www.barclayslifeskills.com

How can employers step up? We want companies – large, medium and small – to step up to the plate with a pledge to employ one or more trainees in a job or apprenticeship. They could work in your IT, customer service, human resources, marketing or sales departments, or any department with entry level positions. You will be provided with a shortlist of suitable candidates to interview. To get the ball rolling, contact the London Community Foundation, who are managing the process on: skillup@londoncf.org.uk

How can readers help? The more money we raise, the more young people we can skill up. To donate, click here.