My name is Kevin Osei and I am an Award-Winning Social Entrepreneur and Social Mobility Champion. I was born and raised in Newham, East London – one of the most deprived and disadvantaged boroughs in London. I come from a very low socioeconomic household, being entitled to maximum levels of bursaries and student finance. Coming from one of the poorest and most dangerous boroughs in London, in 2016 I realised that there were a lot of talented young people who’s talent often went to waste because they found themselves indulging in gang life and anti-social behaviour. This was often due to reasons such as a lack of guidance, role models and access to opportunities.
When I noticed this ongoing pattern in 2016, I wanted to do something about this. I believed that with an increase of opportunities available to young people in my community, this would help tackle the ongoing issue of violent crime. With the right guidance and mentorship, I thought that young people could be guided to stay on the right path.
In 2017 I was applying for numerous internship opportunities, but received nothing but rejections. The problem was that I wasn’t receiving feedback, so I didn’t know how to improve my applications to increase my chances of being successful. In 2018, I had a mentor who
provided me with one-to-one tailored support with my CV, cover letter, mock interviews and career advice. This resulted in me securing an internship at one of the Big 4 Financial Services companies, KPMG. After experiencing the first hand benefits of mentoring, I chose to speak to
young people from underrepresented backgrounds to find out how they felt about accessing employment. Of my findings, over 70% said that they didn’t have the guidance, support, confidence, knowledge, networks to access employment.
Because of this, I decided to launch Bridging Barriers in 2020. Bridging Barriers is a registered charity founded in October 2020, focused on helping young people to access employment
through mentoring. Find out more.