A campaign targeting areas of high unemployment helped almost 450 unemployed Birmingham residents into work at the city's spectacular Grand Central development.The £150 million shopping centre opened to great fanfare last month, creating 1,000 new full-time jobs and figures released today show that many of those jobs went to people from Birmingham's high unemployment priority wards*.

The success of young people going on to forge independent lives for themselves has been celebrated during National Care Leavers Week – at the same time as a new project was launched in Wolverhampton to improve the transition process.

Two promising Engineering students at Walsall College are using their passion and talents to launch their own commercial enterprise creating 3D products for businesses. Level 2 students, Ashley Mullen and Artjoms Semjonovs, both aged 17, have joined forces to set up their own company, ReSpace, and are being supported by the college to develop their business and enterprise skills alongside their course.

World Travel Market London 2015 is giving travel and tourism students the chance to talk to potential employees as part of its ITT Future You program. It is the sixth time that the Institute of Travel and Tourism has hosted its Future You event at the world's leading event for the travel industry. It is one of the most attended sessions, attracting 600 people last year.

Earlier this month, the British Chambers of Commerce published the first part of its Business and Education Survey 2015. The Survey results for the Black Country, completed by 107 education providers and businesses, reveal that 87% of business and 100% of school leaders agree that secondary schools should offer work experience to under 16s.

West Midlands Housing Association, Nehemiah UCHA has appointed two new Property Services Trainee Surveyors and one Housing Services Trainee. Mohi Kazi and Jordon Fearon will work closely with the Property Services Manager as part of their graduate two-year internship programme, and Rakpinder Basra will work alongside the Housing Operations Manager to complete the internships which have been made possible through the Nehemiah UCHA Academy.