RETAILERS
“WHAT WE REALISED IS THAT THE COMMUNITY IS DESPERATELY IN NEED OF REPAIRS, WE’RE PROVIDING THAT AS A COMMUNITY BIKE SHOP”
The programme takes six months to complete, after which trainees have hopefully gained confidence as well as skills, Stutter said. “The first thing I find that it’s important to ingrain in young people is eye contact, confidence, presentation. We guarantee that we will put them in front of potential employers at the end and we support them through that. “Obviously they come through the course with a lovely shiny CV because they’ll have their employability training, they’ll have their City & Guilds Level One or Two, and depending on the time of year and where we are in the programme, they might get a first aid course or a fire marshal course or a health and safety at work course - anything to pile onto that CV. “And then, we put them in front of potential employers.
We’ve worked quite deeply with Balfe’s Bikes and we’re working and reaching out to people like Decathlon. And weirdly enough, we’re in negotiation with Veolia, who are the waste collection services, they are now moving into e-cargo bikes. “They’re using four wheel cargo bikes for micro
waste collection, and those machines are going to need servicing. We’re very keen to be involved in the revolution of e-cargo bikes.”
Real life experience The stakeholders for the programme are Westminster Council, Cycle Confident and Groundwork London. The real nuts and bolts of it came together at the height of lockdown, explained Stutter, when there was a dearth of bike repair. PHOTO BY TOM CONWAY ON UNSPLASH
“Westminster is acutely aware of the bike shop deserts in the borough. Even the major chain stores cannot operate profitably with London rents. A lot of them purely operate by negotiating rent free periods, and their business plan relies on that.” Throughout the six month programme, the trainees work alongside experienced bike mechanics refurbishing old bikes – of which 80% are sold at affordable prices to generate income for the shop, and 20% are donated to the local community. “What we realised is that the community is desperately in need of repairs,” said Stutter. “We’re providing that as a community bike shop. The young people, when they’ve reached a certain level of skill and ability, they can do those repairs with our oversight. We’ve got two fully trained mechanics working alongside them. “And we’ve found that the business side of that has really exploded, providing real life experience for young people.” As of June 2022, 30 Westminster residents have completed their six-month training since the shop opened in March 2021, and most have gone on to secure further employment, many within the bike industry. Chris Whiteley, who successfully completed his paid work placement with Westminster Wheels and who is now a full-time bike mechanic, said: “I first moved to London last year. I was homeless before I came here so I moved in with my sister. I found a poster for Westminster Wheels when I was going for a walk one day and thought, I love bikes and would love to learn how to fix them. Westminster Wheels has absolutely changed my life. I went from having no idea or what to do with my life to finding a career that I could happily spend the rest of my life doing.”
14 | September 2022
www.bikebiz.com
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