Boxing is Love, Behind the Guard, Money Ready and Tower Hamlets City Council hosts Career and Financial Education Evening at Spotlight Centre

Last week Boxing is Love spent an evening at the Limehouse Boxing Academy at Spotlight Centre in Langdon Park, London, where we collaborated with our amazing partners at Behind the Guard, Tower Hamlets City Council and Money Ready on an evening of free workshop bringing financial education and careers advice to young people around the area.

Team Boxing is Love with Team Behind the Guard, Connect to Work team from Tower Hamlets City Council and Team Money Ready at the Limehouse Boxing Academy, Langdon Park, London

Money Ready opened the practical side, walking the room through budgeting and the things a first payslip never explains, from tax codes to take-home pay. The Connect to Work team from Tower Hamlets Council followed on jobs and career support. We kept the energy up in between, running boxing challenges with prizes so the evening never sat still for long.

Team Boxing is Love then spent the evening speaking to young people on the potential career pathways that their interest in boxing could lead to, from sports psychology to nutrition science, from the branding that builds a fighter's profile to the designer behind the fighter's outfits. A life in the sport can begin in any of them. We wanted young people to see the whole industry, and to find the corner of it that might be theirs.

From there we talked through the education routes and the work experience that lead into those roles, and we sat down one to one with anyone who wanted to map a way in.

Commonwealth featherweight champion Masood Abdulah talked about money and discipline, and about the realities of life as a professional boxer, the parts that rarely reach the highlight reel.

More than a million young people in the UK are now not in education, employment or training, the highest total since 2013. One evening will not move a number that size, but we are working tirelessly to provide as much structural support as possible to help more young people find their path forward.

Our thanks to everyone who came through, and to the partners who shared the evening with us.