January 2025 and the year ahead

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A year of impact

January has been another important month for the Jobs Foundation as we completed the final milestone of our Phase 2 development – recruiting a thousand business leaders from across the country to form our Business Council. We’re thrilled to have such a brilliant group of business leaders who are so vital in supporting our work, from providing the examples that underpin our research, to ensuring that we can understand the pressing policy issues impacting different types of businesses across the country.

This achievement means that we have now turned our full attention to  our ambitions for Phase 3 – which you can read more about here – where we will be focused on maximising our impact through both our policy work and our practical work.

Our Policy Work

One of the Government’s key ambitions is to boost the employment rate to 80 per cent, bringing two million more people into the workforce. The Jobs Foundation – and businesses across the country – strongly support this ambition. But recent changes, like the increases to NICs for businesses and the Employment Rights Bill, will make it harder for businesses to create the new jobs needed to deliver this. We will be a loud advocate – across the media and in policy debates – for the measures that will allow businesses to thrive, and in turn, able to create the employment needed to ‘Get Britain Working’ again.

Our Practical Work

Over the course of 2025, we will be creating a Jobs Foundation Accreditation Scheme, to recognise the outstanding work of businesses in providing jobs and training, and to act as a catalyst to help the country achieve the national target of 80 per cent employment. This scheme will draw on a new Best Practice Report, which we will publish in Autumn this year, and be informed by the guidance of a highly experienced Steering Committee. Once it is launched in Q1 2026, we will use our Business Council network, plus the networks of business groups and trade associations, to roll it out across the country.

Our Business Council

At the core of our work is the Jobs Foundation Business Council, which will continue to expand this year, with plans for three Regional Council’s to be launched over 2025. Local businesses are not just economic drivers and employers but also pillars of trust and character within their communities. Our Regional Council’s will ensure that our work is anchored in the frontline work of local businesses across the country.

What have we achieved in January?

The Jobs Foundation team has been busy making a start on delivering all of this over the course of January. Some highlights include:

• Our President, Lord Elliott, speaking in the House of Lords warning of the impact that the increased Employer NICs would have on job growth. Watch here.
• Travelling to Exeter to visit South West Water to learn more about their gold standard apprenticeship programme, where they are embarking on ‘Project 1000’ to hire a thousand apprentices over the coming years. Read here.
• Hosting an online briefing with a panel of business leaders from across the UK to hear about how the increases to employer National Insurance Contributions were impacting their businesses, and ability to generate jobs in the UK. Watch here.
• Visiting Jardox, a food manufacturing business based in Kent that has grown over the past decade into a business with £55m in annual revenue, with its wonderful team and family business culture rooted at the core of their success. Read more about the visit here, and read their Chairman, Richard Ashness’, recent piece in the Telegraph here.
• Responding to the latest ONS figures on employment, where we called on the Government to recognise the importance of creating a sound business environment that allows businesses to thrive so that they can create the vital jobs necessary to ‘Get Britain Working’ again. See here.
• Meeting the CEO of the Scottish Grocers Federation to discuss how the retail sector is being impacted by rising costs on employment.
• Hosting our January Breakfast Series with Max Tobias, founder of the Dusty Knuckle bakery, who discussed how business plays a vital role in providing the training and mentorship to take ex-offenders from prison into long-term employment. See here.
• The House of Commons publishing our consultation response to the Employment Rights Bill, detailing our concerns that the Bill would have on businesses ability to hire people from long-term out-of-work and other disadvantaged backgrounds. See here. 
• Welcoming two new fantastic trustees – Alison Rankin Frost and Andrew Allum – who will provide invaluable guidance and support to our work.  

Of course, what makes this all possible is our people. The wonderful team whose work makes the above come to life, and of course our supporters, without which none of this would be possible. As a charity dedicating to lifting people out of the trap of worklessness through the incredible work of our business community, please do consider donating below. It is always so appreciated!

Best wishes,

Georgiana