Gateway to the city: (group founded by Dirk Paterson).

Spitalfields, in East London, lies just outside, the square mile of the City, Britain's financial centre. While the City is perhaps the greatest wealth creator in Europe, nearly a third of Spitalfields' residents are unemployed. Eighty-three per cent of the population are Bengali, and 47 per cent of these are without jobs.

The City Gateway Initiative, founded by Dirk Paterson in October 1999, aims to build a bridge between these two areas and train and empower Spitalfields residents for IT jobs in the City. They target 18- to 25-year-olds, mainly from the Bangladeshi community, and aim to equip them with leading-edge skills. Their courses also address the cultural barriers and prejudices that often hinder entry into City jobs. Of the 24 people who have completed their courses so far, eight have gone on to fulltime university education and nine are in jobs.

Lawrence Fearon: What has been your work's focus?

Dirk Paterson: My vision has been to start some kind of mechanism by which the Bengali community, who have been excluded, could be included in the society of the rich. I believe the City needs its gates thrown open.

People who live on the edge of the City of London have this incredible feeling of rich and poor. There are people on one side of Brick Lane earning [pounds sterling] 1 million pounds as their Christmas bonus. While on the other side of Brick Lane there are seven people living in two rooms.

There is a feeling that this is utterly unjust. So we had a God-given vision of creating a way into the richness of the City for those excluded from it. Hence the City Gateway initiative.

LF: What would you say is at the root of exclusion?

DP: There are lots of reasons why people are excluded. One is, I think, that this City is basically racist, and another is that there is a perception that Bengali people don't have the right accents, the right skills and the right attitudes.

LF: How are you addressing the issue?

DP: We have set up an Information Technology Training Company limited by guarantee, a charity. The vision is not only to give people IT skills but also to encourage them spiritually. There are some 150,000 IT vacancies in the City, so it makes sense to link the skills deficit and the local unemployment--it's a simple win-win scenario.

As well as IT skills we wanted to give people confidence they've never had, because many have never had the kind of education that people like myself and people in the City have had. Many of them have parents who are second generation non-English speakers.

We want to give local young Bengali people the encouragement that they've never had because they were not expected to achieve more than two GCSE's in their school-leaving exams, or to do anything but muck around. Our vision is to give them the equipment to be included in the City.

LF: How have you given expression to your vision through Gateway?

DP: We produce a holistic package for the young people who come on our 14-week courses. People are allocated to a mentor at the very beginning, who will check on how the course is going, give guidance on choices that need to be made, check on whether the student is studying well outside the course and turning up on time and all those sorts of things which students often miss out on.

As believers, we bring a specific spiritual dimension to the work, and underpin all we do with prayer.

At the time of going to press, City Gateway is looking for a Deputy Manager, and would also welcome offers of mentoring, work placements or donations. Further information from City Gateway Ltd, Bethnal Green Training Centre, Deal Street, London E1.

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