December 2024 Newsletter

2024 has been an important year for the Jobs Foundation – we came into the new year with big plans, which we have delivered on, and more.

Our aim was to expand our Business Council to 1,000 members. We are very close to this number, with 958 members as of today. A range of companies from across the country – from small start-ups with less than five employees to some of the largest organisations in the country – are now part of the Jobs Foundation family. And it really is a family, with our members engaging with us and each other in a myriad of ways.

We made visits to so many great businesses in 2024, above and beyond the interviews that made up our foundational research. Amongst the great companies we spoke to are Charlie Bigham’s, Thatchers Cider, Stansted Airport, JCB and many more. In 2025, the Jobs Foundation will be speaking with even more businesses of all sizes, to understand and champion the good work they do in creating prosperity.

Over the summer, the Jobs Foundation launched each chapter of our foundational research, picking up local and national media hits along the way. These included an article in The Yorkshire Post (behind a paywall – you can read it on the JF website here), a piece in Wales Online, as well as coverage in CapX on our research at Teesworks.

The steady drumbeat of these releases led up to the launch of the full report, Two Million Jobs: How businesses play a crucial role in helping people from welfare into work (key findings here), in late October. To celebrate this launch, we had a fantastic reception at Two Temple Place, with over 150 guests, whilst simultaneously achieving excellent pickup in the national press. Here are some of the highlights:

• A full article in the Daily Telegraph on the report.
• An article in the Spectator.
• Nick Tyrone, the author of the report, wrote a piece for Conservative Home for the launch alongside a mention in LabourList.
• An article in City AM on the Budget which mentions the report in glowing terms.
• An appearance by Nick Tyrone on GB News.
• An appearance in the Spectator magazine, with mention of the report by friend of the Jobs Foundation, Martin Vander Weyer.

The Jobs Foundation held our Breakfast Series throughout the year, featuring great guest speakers from across the business and political world:

• January: Breakfast with Lord Harrington and Lord Mendelsohn
• February: Andy Silvester, editor of City AM at the time of the event, now London Editor at The Times
• March: Luke Johnson, serial entrepreneur and chairman of Gail’s
• April: Charles Lewington OBE and Michael Lorimer, CEO of DCS
• May: Alison Cork MBE, the founder of Make It Your Business
• June: Polly Mackenzie, former Deputy Head of Policy in Number 10
• July: Lord Dominic Johnson CBE and Dinesh Dhamija, entrepreneur and former MEP
• September: Gabriel Pogrund, Whitehall editor of the Sunday Times
• October: Iain Anderson, Non-Executive Director at the Department for Business and Trade
• November: Two Million Jobs breakfast, with Nick Tyrone, Colin Crooks MBE and Ben Woollard, founder of the Ascend Programme

We will be continuing this Breakfast Series next year, with more fantastic speakers, including social entrepreneur Max Tobias, former Skills Minister Rob Halfon, former Employment Minister Jim Murphy, and many others. 

In 2025, the Jobs Foundation will be looking to expand our practical impact by developing an Accreditation Scheme which will launch at the beginning of 2026. We will also be contributing to the policy debate, to ensure businesses have the policy environment they need to thrive. And we will continue to build our Business Council, including the launch of Regional Councils. We will share more of our plans for 2025 in January. But in the meantime, we wish everyone involved with the Jobs Foundation a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

And to properly attribute credit for our Christmas card above, the logo was coloured in by the two sons of our CEO, Georgiana Bristol, Freddie (8) and Henry (4) – budding artists who’re still on their spelling journey!