Ladders of Opportunity Breakfast: Business leading the way in creating opportunity

Last week, business leaders gathered at the Old Queen Street Café for our October Ladders of Opportunity breakfast: a lively conversation about how employers are creating real pathways into work through smarter hiring, training, and retention.

Chaired by our Communications Director, Jamie Booth, the panel brought together some of the UK’s leading voices on opportunity: Heather Graham (Marks & Spencer), Christopher Nieper (David Nieper Ltd), Graham Briggs (Greene King), Tanja Mrnjaus (Pret Foundation), and Lucy Standing (Brave Starts).

Heather shared insights from Marks and Starts, M&S’s long-running programme helping young people facing barriers into employment, many of whom now run stores or serve as employee reps. As she put it, bringing in fresh talent doesn’t just change lives, it energises entire teams.

From Derbyshire, Christopher Nieper spoke passionately about how David Nieper Ltd has made training local people its business model. Through the David Nieper Education Trust, the company has sponsored local schools and colleges to build skills for the future, proving that investing in your community is also an investment in long-term business success.

Graham Briggs highlighted Greene King’s Supported Internships with Mencap and other partners, helping young people with learning disabilities move into sustained employment. He spoke movingly about meeting parents whose children’s lives — and families — had been transformed by the scheme.

Tanja Mrnjaus from the Pret Foundation described the Rising Stars programme, which offers people experiencing homelessness the chance to train and work at Pret. Many graduates return as mentors, creating a culture where opportunity is shared and the human impact of every role is felt across the business.

And Lucy Standing reminded us of a growing and often-overlooked group: older workers. With nearly 40% of the UK workforce now over 50, she urged employers to rethink how they support and retain experienced talent, not as an afterthought, but as a strategic priority.

Across every story ran a common thread: when businesses build ladders of opportunity, they don’t just change lives, they strengthen their own foundations for growth.

To help more employers do just that, our CEO Georgiana Bristol closed the morning by announcing the Jobs Foundation Employer Taskforce: a new one-year initiative bringing together senior business leaders to design and pilot the Jobs Foundation Pledge.

The Jobs Foundation Pledge will set out what best practice looks like in creating opportunity, strengthening communities, and tackling skills shortages, a national mark of excellence akin to Living Wage Employer or Investor in People. It will spotlight businesses using employment as a force for good and share practical models others can adopt. It will also help share the right examples and knowledge so that other companies can do more when it comes to hiring and retaining staff from different disadvantaged backgrounds.

We’re excited to continue these conversations in the months ahead — working with businesses across the country to build more ladders of opportunity and help more people move from welfare and inactivity into meaningful work.