February 2025: Business, Education and the Ladder of Opportunity

This month, we took the opportunity to celebrate the power of business as a provider of education and training, getting more people into good, sustainable employment and boosting social mobility.

We know that there are currently 946,000 young people not in education, employment or training, so to kick off National Apprenticeships week, we hosted an online briefing with representatives from the worlds of business, policy and education to discuss the merits of apprenticeships and how we can encourage more young people to look towards them as a successful career path and how to inspire more businesses to recognise their importance.

We also know that it’s not just young people that benefit from skills development and education, so turning to life-long learning, our President, Matthew Elliott, spoke in a debate in the House of Lords on the importance of lifelong learning. He highlighted the evolving nature of the labour market and thus the need for the provision of training and skills programmes at all stages in one’s career.

He stated that: “Many have yet to fully wake up to the impact that AI will have on the labour market and social norms. The inspiring story of someone in a low-paid service sector role, studying at night school to train as an accountant or lawyer, will fade away. In the future, the story is more likely to be that of a white-collar worker losing their job and retraining to become a bricklayer, plasterer or forklift truck driver. This has huge implications both for the type of lifelong learning required and also for the careers we encourage children to take up at school.”

Our Research Director, Nick Tyrone, travelled to Newcastle to speak with businesses like CyberNorth, Sage and Accenture about their apprenticeship schemes. We had the privilege of travelling to Portsmouth to visit Harwin Plc, where the head of their Apprenticeships Programme, Gareth Pountain, was a true inspiration of going above and beyond to inspire the next generation of our workforce. We look forward to showcasing these businesses in our Best Practice report, to be published later this year.

The value of skills development was summarised by our Apprenticeships and Skills Director, Robert Halfon: “Apprenticeships and skills are an essential rung on the ladder of opportunity. The top rung of that ladder is always jobs, security and prosperity. Get the skills and training right, and there is every chance those seeking work will have good employment for life. I know this to be true, having met literally hundreds of aspirational apprentices or skills trainees all over the country, whose hard-won efforts, working in brilliant and thoughtful businesses, have transformed their lives.”

Alongside all of this, the Jobs Foundation team has been busy as ever:

• We hosted a breakfast asking the question ‘Is Britain’s education system creating the workforce of the future?’ with a panel of speakers from the coalface of skills and training provision. Read more here.
• We responded to this month’s ONS figures on employment levels in the UK, with Matthew being featured in the Telegraph writing about the need for a thriving business environment that allows businesses to generate employment. Read here and here.
• Matthew, spoke in a debate in the House of Lords discussing the social, economic and personal value of lifelong learning. Watch here.  We hosted an online briefing  titled ‘Ladders of Opportunity: Apprenticeships, Growth and Empowerment’, where we heard from an esteemed panel about the power of apprenticeships to create opportunity for both young people and those already in the workforce. Watch here.
• We travelled to Portsmouth to visit Harwin, a leading UK-manufacturer of connectors, to learn more about their innovative apprenticeship programme. Read our write-up here.
• Alongside our Apprenticeships and Skills Director, Rob Halfon, we visited Stansted College to speak with young apprentices about how apprenticeships with businesses are helping them achieve their career dreams in the aviation industry. See here.
• Nick spoke at a policy conference in Kent about the mission of the Jobs Foundation and our work over the coming year. Read here.
• Nick and our Business Council Manager, Kellen Hadfield, travelled to Newcastle to speak with local businesses including CyberNorth and Accenture as part of the research behind our Best Practice Report. Read here.
• Matthew spoke at the Enterprise Forum, sharing the mission of the Jobs Foundation and calling on businesses to get involved with the national mission of getting two million more people into employment. See here.
• We also had a win in Parliament! On Tuesday, the House of Lords approved an amendment to the National Insurance Bill which will exempt smaller businesses from the NI rises. Matthew spoke in support of this motion and we will press MPs to support the amendment when the Bill returns to the House of Commons. Watch here.

We will continue to champion the power of apprenticeships and life-long learning as a vital mechanism for getting people from unemployment and economic inactivity back into the workforce, and we will support the Government as they work to reform our skills landscape to bring more people into work.

This policy area is a prime example of business being a force for good. As ever, if you have any thoughts on our work or would like to share how your business is championing apprenticeships and skills education, then please do get in touch.