Case Study

The perfect partnership

17 Dec. 2025

When good people come together, amazing things happen. A cliche maybe, but intrinsically true. Ingeus’ partnership with Crowd Master and Core Skills is one such collaboration. Owned by Damion White, a man on a mission to help long-term unemployed people thrive, the two businesses strongly align with Ingeus’ values and working together is proving a recipe for success. 

Initially working with Ingeus’ Work and Health Programme, in May 2024 Core Skills joined forces with the Restart Scheme in London as an external training provider. As one of Ingeus’ Performance Fund partners – a fund used to obtain specialist services and skills training to help Restart Scheme participants – Core Skills has already helped more than 70 participants learn new skills and return to employment.  

Damion’s second venture, Crowd Master – a company providing security and stewarding to venues and events in London and the South East – brings local employment opportunities for Restart Scheme participants. The collaboration ensures they’re supported throughout their return-to-work journey.  

“When I set up Core Skills, I always knew the aim was to help people move back into work, explains Damion. “My sole purpose with Crowd Master is to give people the opportunity to move from training into a paid role. To an extent, they’re guaranteed a job; if they have the right documentation and show how reliable they are on the course, then we’re happy for them to work with us.” 

Serena Matthews from the Ingeus Employer Services Team leads the collaboration at Ingeus and adds: “We’re helping people who would otherwise struggle with an interview. When this partnership was forming, I saw its potential to help those marginalised from the jobs market, allowing us to live out Ingeus’s mission to enable better lives.”  

Serena and her team support a broad spectrum of people, from over 50s, to refugees with language barriers or no previous UK work history. Damion describes Ingeus’ first stage as a form of screening, benefiting Crowd Master by ensuring only those interested in security and stewarding roles sign up. With 350 employees, sometimes 500 at peak season, it relies on this process. 

Damion explains: “If we took Ingeus out of the equation, we’d put adverts out and only 40% may turn up. Ingeus is screening, speaking to them, raising any queries. Our conversion rates are far higher than if we recruited externally. We start with the right people – people who may not have got through a 20-minute interview with us, but Ingeus can see their potential. We trust Ingeus’ judgement.” 

Carlos, a Crowd Master employee who trained with Core Skills after joining the Restart Scheme, moved from Portugal to the UK in 2011. He was unemployed for over a decade, facing multiple barriers, including language and health problems. Now, after 12 months of tailored support from his Restart Advisor Jermaine Ngobeh and Core Skills’ training, he’s regularly stewarding events at London’s O2 Arena. 

Carlos recalls: “The Restart Scheme helped me overcome the problems I had finding work due to my health and language difficulties. I valued the conversations and training – and then help to start work. It just shows what you can achieve when you try.” 

Crowd Master boasts a strong staff retention rate, perhaps helped by the added perk of working at events spanning music concerts to Premier League football matches.  

Damion says: “We’ve got some employees who’ve worked with us since we started four years ago, while others use us as a stepping stone to other jobs. That’s still a positive though because they’ve built their confidence with us. When they leave, they’ll not only get a reference but they’re also more ready for the expectations of employment, such as time-keeping and workplace behaviours.” 

Commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions, Ingeus is the lead provider of the Restart Scheme in Greater Manchester and Central and West London. It also partners with Serco, to support the Restart Scheme in Central West Midlands.