Fifteen Foundation

Fifteen Foundation is a commercial business with a purpose – a global social enterprise with young people at its heart. Fifteen has four restaurants worldwide – Amsterdam, Cornwall, London and Melbourne – all of which operate a pioneering apprenticeship scheme for young people, between the ages of 18 and 24, alongside the day-to-day running of the restaurants.

Fifteen is named after the first cohort of 15 young people who joined the London chef apprenticeship scheme in 2002.

Fifteen’s purpose is two-fold: firstly to offer young people, often in need of a break in life, the experience of learning to work in the restaurant business and secondly, for our customers to enjoy fantastic food and knowledgeable customer service. The restaurant is the trading arm of a registered charity, Fifteen Foundation (no.1094536), and the profits go towards the apprenticeship scheme.

Profits from our restaurant, Fifteen London, provide some of the funding but we rely heavily on generous donations to really help achieve our goals.

It costs around £30,000 train each person. This funds a combination of college and in-house training, welfare support and sourcing trips to top producers – just some of the things that make our course so unique and successful.

In London we take 18 apprentices each year – to date we’ve trained 106 apprentices through the Fifteen chef apprenticeship scheme, of which 65 have graduated.

Jamie is a trustee of the Foundation and is one of 10 trustees. All the trustees are united by their shared passion for helping to transform the lives of young people.

The most basic measure of our results is how many students graduate and then go on to find jobs or a career. Of the 2008 London apprentices, 88% of the group were accessing benefits at the start of the programme and 58% had a qualification of less than NVQ level 1. A total of 66% completed the apprenticeship, all of which went on to full-time employment and obtained a college certification of NVQ level 1 and 2.

For more info about running for Fifteen Foundation contact Clara-Monica Mboizi on Tel: 0207 251 3909 or email us or visit our website.

There is more information about the packages Sports Tours has for the ING New York City Marathon on the New York Marathon web pages.