The country’s growth ambitions depend on solving its skills gap, and businesses have the tools to do it now.
That is why I am proud to share that Brabners has launched a new partnership with the Aldridge Foundation, tackling one of the most pressing challenges facing young people today: the fact that thousands of talented young people are held back from achieving their ambitions, not by ability, but by access.
At the same time, many businesses say they struggle to find talent with the core business skills they need – skills that are often not covered by traditional forms of education.
The partnership will build a pathway connecting young people directly with employers, through mentoring, workplace experience, careers support, T Level placements and routes into apprenticeships.
We launched the partnership at our Manchester office, alongside the Foundation’s founder Sir Rod Aldridge, at an event that also marked its 20th anniversary.
What matters most is the timing, and what we are asking businesses to do. Rather than waiting until young people come up against the barriers they face finding work, we are stepping in earlier, before that gap has the chance to open up, and are asking businesses to become active participants: opening their doors, sharing their expertise, and creating real routes into work.
As Sir Rod Aldridge put it: “Every young person should leave education with skills, meaningful experience of work, and a professional network.”
We saw exactly what that looks like in the room at the launch event. Inspiring, former Aldridge Foundation students spoke honestly about the challenges they had faced breaking into industry, and to business leaders about what they could offer in return.
Backing young talent
From its outset, harnessing talent and connecting people with opportunity has been as central to our True North network as the economic case for inclusive growth, and the 650-plus purpose-led businesses in the network are the organisations best placed to do this.
Bringing young talent into a business brings fresh perspective and energy that shapes culture from the inside; it is also how a region builds the workforce its growing businesses need.
Bridging the education-to-employment gap
Our partnership also speaks to a challenge policymakers appear to be taking increasingly seriously – the number of young people not in education, employment or training, and the barriers that stop talent turning into opportunity.
The Milburn Review’s recommendations on this issue are due later in the year, with likely reform to T Levels and the wider skills pipeline to follow. The policy work on this matters, and it is encouraging to see it moving. However, the organisations that are best placed to have a meaningful impact on closing the opportunity gap are the businesses that are embedded in their local communities.
Where policy can help is in removing the barriers that make it administratively harder for businesses to offer placements, apprenticeships and mentoring at scale, and ensuring skills reform reflects what employers on the ground actually need.
In the meantime, we are not waiting. The first door is often the hardest to open and we intend to keep opening it.
Key takeaways
- Brabners has launched a new partnership with the Aldridge Foundation to build a direct pathway connecting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds with employers through mentoring, work experience and skills development.
- Many businesses say they struggle to find talent with the core business skills they need – skills often not covered by traditional education – while thousands of talented young people are held back not by ability, but by access.
- Engaging young people earlier – before they have left education – is more effective than waiting until they are job-ready, because early exposure to the workplace builds the confidence, skills and connections that make the eventual transition viable.
- The Milburn Review’s forthcoming recommendations on T Levels and apprenticeships may create a more supportive policy environment, but businesses should not wait for policy reform to act on the education-to-employment gap.
- Bringing young talent into a business brings fresh perspective and energy that shapes culture from the inside, and is also how a region builds the workforce its growing businesses need.
