The Skill Mill

The Skill Mill is a UK multi-awarded social enterprise which provides employment opportunities for young people aged between sixteen and eighteen. They employ only ex-offenders, actively reducing reoffending whilst increasing engagement, participation, employability and educational levels of the young people to increase their life chances.

The enterprise provides a wide range of services, including grounds maintenance and landscaping, flood recovery assistance, bench building and installation, tree work, fence repairs, hedge laying and cleaning services.

The Skill Mill identifies young people in the youth justice system who face significant barriers to gaining employment. Once selected, every young person joins a team of four young people led by a qualified team leader, and is supported with a six months paid work experience. Each team works on a range of unique projects linked to environmental management - this ranges from building fish ladders in Northumberland to helping to transform brownfield sites into a community asset in Leeds.

Over the past ten years, The Skill Mill has worked with over 450 young people, and less than 8% have reoffended, compared to the national reoffending rate of 63.8% (England and Wales) for young people under 18, according to Youth Offending statistics.

The partnership with Equans

Equans, a Bouygues group company, is a global leading enterprise in energies and services with operations in 20 countries. It offers facilities management and maintenance services to a wide range of customers: from homes to cities, hospitals to central governments, offices to industry. In order to integrate impact in their daily operations, Equans developed the Equans IMPACT Manifesto which is a framework based on seven key commitments, including responsible procurement, environmental and social responsibility, diversity and inclusion, ethics and health and safety.

As a participant in the Buy Social Corporate Challenge, Equans regularly attends "Meet the Social Enterprise Supplier" events organised by Social Enterprise UK. Equans’ procurement team members attend these events to learn about available social enterprises. During one of these events, Equans had the opportunity to see a pitch from The Skill Mill and recognised that they could be an excellent fit for the mainstream enterprises’ needs. 

Following an introductory call to learn more about both organisations, The Skill Mill was invited to present at an internal Equans "Meet the Social Enterprise" event, where they pitched their services to Equans’ wider procurement team. As a result of this engagement, The Skill Mill was awarded an opportunity to work on one of Equans’ government contracts.

This led to the start of a partnership in 2021 with Skill Mill, which provided repair and painting services for buildings and properties. 

“One of the key lessons Equans learned from this project is the exceptional dedication and commitment displayed by social enterprises, particularly The Skill Mill. Despite having no prior operations in the area, The Skill Mill went above and beyond by quickly assembling a team to meet the project's needs. We haven't always observed this level of dedication in commercial enterprises. Moreover, The Skill Mill team's professionalism and high standard of service have been outstanding, as evidenced by excellent feedback from residents and the client. Their strong communication and eagerness to maintain quality throughout the project have been remarkable. The team consistently demonstrated courtesy and respect, ensuring that they delivered a top-quality service from start to finish.”

- Karolina Mikolajczyk, Procurement Manager, Equans UK & Ireland

The Impact

The young people working on the projects with Equans were all referred through the Norfolk Youth Justice Team with long histories of persistent and serious offending. 

In the 2 years to date:

• 16 youngsters have been employed and there has been only 1 reconviction. That equates to approx 6% compared to a 63% counterfactual
• 60% of the young people progressed into further employment, of whom 12% created their own self-employment opportunities.
• All the young people achieved their CSCS [Construction skills Certification Scheme] and Health and Safety at Work qualifications and AQA Level 2 Employability Skills qualifications

“Building relationships with corporate partners is critical to success and takes time. In the case of our work with Equans we developed mutual trust built on shared values and with open and transparent communication which ultimately converted into a strong business partnership. This generated significant evidence of social impact and commercial benefit not only for The Skill Mill and Equans but also for a range of secondary stakeholders. “

- David Parks OBE, Managing Director, The Skill Mill