The Ladder Apprenticeship Foundation
Charity 1145331
Overview
Summary
The Ladder Apprenticeship Foundation appears to be a youth employability charity whose role extends beyond training alone. Its objects frame education, work experience, employment support and practical assistance as connected routes toward sustainable income and self-sufficiency for under-25s, especially those facing social or economic disadvantage. The available evidence suggests an organisation positioned at the intersection of skills development, poverty prevention and labour-market access, although its actual delivery model, geography and partnerships remain unclear.
Operational geography
Coverage: Regional
Operational areas:
Evidence and reasoning
Supporting evidence
Remaining uncertainties
- Direct evidence: the Charity Commission currently lists Birmingham City among the places where the charity operates, alongside Coventry City, Shropshire, Walsall and Wolverhampton. This supports a regional operational footprint rather than a neighbourhood-, district- or Birmingham-citywide-only identity.
- Reasonable interpretation: the listed geography indicates that Birmingham is part of the charity's stated operating area, but it does not identify any Birmingham delivery venue, ward, recognised place, partner or service activity.
- No supplied or authoritative public evidence identifies current delivery within any of the available Birmingham wards or the City Centre; therefore no operational area has been recorded.
- The charity's most recent Charity Commission financial data, for the year ending 31 August 2024, records income of £60 and expenditure of £998. This makes the scale and continuity of current delivery uncertain, despite Birmingham remaining on its declared operating-area list.
- The registered/contact address is in Walsall, and the Charity Commission states that the charity does not own or lease land or property. Neither establishes a Birmingham physical site.
- No material Birmingham partnership extending the charity's current operational reach was evidenced.
Additional evidence needed
- A current service or programme list specifying where in Birmingham activity is delivered, including named venues, delivery dates and whether activity is direct delivery, outreach or referral-based.
- Current confirmation from the organisation or named delivery partners of active Birmingham provision.
- Evidence of any Birmingham schools, employers, training providers, community venues or other partners through which the charity currently delivers apprenticeships, training, work experience or employment support.
- A current annual report, impact report or trustee annual return describing beneficiary locations and delivery during or after the financial year ending 31 August 2024.
Areas of work
- Education/training
- General Charitable Purposes
- The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty
Who they help
- Children/young People
How they help
- Provides Advocacy/advice/information
- Provides Buildings/facilities/open Space
- Provides Services
Discoveries involving this organisation
The Atlas has not published any Discoveries involving this organisation yet.
Observations
Employability is treated as a route out of hardship
The organisation appears to link vocational training directly with reducing financial hardship, rather than treating education as an end in itself. Its intended outcome is not only improved skills, but young people being able to earn a sustainable income and become self-sufficient.
Why it matters
This indicates a broader social role than a conventional training provider: its effectiveness may depend on whether it can connect learning to real employment opportunities and the support needed to sustain them.
Show evidence
“The charity aims to prevent or relieve poverty or financial hardship through education, training and necessary support for individuals up to the age of 25.”
Source:Charity Commission“The support is designed to enable individuals up to the age of 25 to generate a sustainable income and be self-sufficient.”
Source:Charity Commission
The intended model spans the transition from learning into work
The organisation appears to envisage support across several stages: vocational skills, advice, work experience, job-finding and employment opportunities. This may indicate that it recognises the transition into work as a sequence of barriers rather than a single training need.
Why it matters
This helps identify potential complementary relationships with employers, schools, training providers and youth-support organisations, even though no existing partnerships are evidenced.
Show evidence
“The charity may provide assistance to find employment and assist in the creation or provision of work experience, training and employment opportunities.”
Source:Charity Commission“It provides services, advocacy, advice or information, and buildings, facilities or open space.”
Source:Charity Commission
A broad mandate may conceal an unclear local focus
Although the organisation's name suggests an apprenticeship-oriented identity, its formal remit is wider: it can support disadvantaged young people across the United Kingdom through multiple charitable purposes. The available activity statement, however, only confirms education and training.
Why it matters
It would be valuable to establish whether the charity has a distinctive local role, a specialist apprenticeship offer, or a wider but less defined youth-support function.
Show evidence
“The charity's objects apply in such parts of the United Kingdom as the directors see fit.”
Source:Charity Commission“Its stated activity is to advance the education and training of individuals up to the age of 25, particularly those who are socially or economically disadvantaged.”
Source:Organisation
- Whether the charity directly delivers apprenticeships, training, work placements or mainly funds or coordinates others.
- Which places, communities and groups of young people it currently reaches.
- Whether it has active employer, education or referral partnerships.
Remaining uncertainties
- Current programme descriptions, participant numbers and outcomes, including progression into work or apprenticeships.
- Information on delivery locations, referral routes, employer partners and use of facilities.
Additional evidence needed
Charity Commission profile
Activities
To advance the education and training of individuals up to the age of 25, particularly but not exclusively those who are socially or economically disadvantaged, in order to develop their vocational life skills focusing primarily on skills relevant to participation in employment.
Charity objects
The objects of the Company are for the benefit of the public (“the Objects”): 4.1. to advance the education and training of individuals up to the age of 25, particularly but not exclusively those who are socially or economically disadvantaged, in order to develop their vocational life skills focusing primarily on skills relevant to participation in employment; 4.2. to prevent or relieve poverty or financial hardship by providing or assisting in the provision of education and training and all the necessary support designed to enable individuals up to the age of 25 to generate a sustainable income and be self-sufficient; 4.3. to relieve unemployment of enable individuals up to the age of 25 who are unable to obtain work by reason of their age, infirmity or disability, poverty or social economic circumstances in such ways and in such part of the United Kingdom as the directors see fit, including but not limited to providing assistance to find employment and assisting in the creation or provision of work experience, training and employment opportunities; 4.4. to promote such other purposes recognised as charitable under the laws of England and Wales in such parts of the United Kingdom as the directors see fit.