Making a successful transition into work, further or higher education or training is critical to a young person’s life chances and social and emotional wellbeing. Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds often face additional barriers, making the pathways to education or employment opportunities even more difficult. 

The Transitions from Secondary Education Special Initiative, funded by the Mercers’ Charitable Foundation, will support organisations working with disadvantaged young people in London to support them to progress successfully from secondary education.  

We particularly want to fund work that supports young people in considering alternative pathways that build on the skills, knowledge and key competencies valued by future employers, and increases their knowledge and experiences of routes, for example apprenticeships, traineeships. 

Organisations interested in applying must be able to demonstrate how their proposed work helps disadvantaged young people to: 

• Gain access to progression pathways including further or higher education, apprenticeships, traineeships and other similar programmes 
• Build experience and knowledge of work including career specific work experience 
• Develop social and emotional capabilities including communication, leadership and resilience 

How to apply 

To apply, read the guidelines and complete the Expression of Interest form (EOI) by 12pm (noon) on Tuesday 20 August 2024. You will need to register or log in to our grants application system to complete and submit the EOI.  

Shortlisted applicants will be invited to submit a full application. We will inform applicants of the outcome of their EOI by early November. The indicative application timeline is in the guidelines. 

There are also funding FAQs to be viewed alongside the guidelines when applying. 

The funding round launched on Tuesday, 16 July 2024 with a webinar and accompanying slides.  

If you have any questions about the funding round, please contact grants@mercers.co.uk  

Learning Partner Request for Proposals (RfP): Deadline 12pm, 13 August 2024 

We are looking to appoint a Learning Partner to work collaboratively with the Mercers’ Company and the grantees across the four-to-five-year scope of the Transitions from Secondary Education Special Initiative.  

Funded organisations have a lot of knowledge and insight about what works and what the challenges are in delivering programmes that support the transition from secondary education. The learning partner’s role is to: 

• draw out knowledge from: 
  • delivery, teaching and other support staff as appropriate 
  • the findings from the grantees’ own evaluations 
  • current and relevant evidence and research 
• analyse and collate insights and knowledge in an accessible way for grantees and other stakeholders in the Transitions sector can learn from it 

The full Request for Proposal document together with a timeline can be found here. The deadline to submit proposals is 12pm (noon) on Tuesday 13 August 2024. If you have any questions about the RfP, please contact grants@mercers.co.uk.