Transforming lives across London, a UWL lecturer has been praised for his work helping young people from disadvantaged backgrounds not only get into higher education, but secure jobs in professional industries.

Offering mentoring and support services to young people across the city, Dr Waheed Oseni has dedicated his free time to supporting education and training over the past six years.

Since 2015, he has mentored almost 50 young people, helping them as they study across a host of UK universities before going on to graduate and secure professional employment in many different fields of study.

He has now been awarded the UK Community Life Changer Award Recognition by the Building Blocks Initiative (BBI) in partnership with the London Borough of Southwark Council to mark the huge difference it has made to so many lives.

Earlier this year, Waheed - the new Course leader for Construction Management at UWL’s School of Computing and Engineering (SCE) - also received a Community Award from the Mayor of London thanks to his efforts transforming lives across the capital.

Professor Amir Alani, Executive Dean for SCE, said:

Dr Oseni has contributed so much of his time to supporting young people to access and benefit from education, gaining the skills and qualifications they need to succeed in many different walks of life.

This sense of community and support for everybody embodies everything we do here at UWL and we are immensely proud to have him with us supporting even more young people as they work towards building careers in computing and engineering.