In the UK, Tata Global Beverages has signed up to the Social Mobility Business Compact, the Deputy Prime Minister’s flagship scheme to create fairer access to the best jobs.
More than one hundred of Britain’s biggest companies and top professional groups have signed the Business Compact, committing them to making entry into their professions fairer. The Business Compact forms a key part of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Social Mobility Strategy, launched in April 2011, which sets out the Government’s determination to ensure every individual is free to achieve, regardless of the circumstances of their birth.
The Social Mobility Business Compact has called on businesses to commit to:
1. Support communities and local schools
- participate in mentoring schemes for young people, allow staff time off and reward them for getting involved and enable schools and businesses to work together; and
- encourage staff at least once a year to talk about their careers as part of a programme to raise aspiration and build knowledge about the world of work.
2. Improve skills and create jobs by providing opportunities for all young people to get a foot on the ladder
- advertise work experience opportunities in local schools rather than filling them through informal networks; and
- offer internships openly and transparently and provide financial support to ensure fair access.
3. Improve quality of life and wellbeing by recruiting openly and fairly, ensuring non-discrimination
- including increased use of name-blank and school-blank applications where appropriate.
For more information about the Social Mobility Business Compact please visit http://www.dpm.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/social-mobility-business-compact
And to see which companies have joined Tata Global Beverages in signing the Business Compact and read about the work they have been doing, please visit http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/content/business-compact-case-studies
Tata Global Beverages’ Reading Scheme.
We have been helping the children at Oldfield Primary School with their reading since 2003. Many of the children struggle with learning to read and do not have English as their first language or speak it at home. Volunteers attend reading sessions at the school three times a week during lunch hour and since the inception of the programme well over 100 pupils have been helped with their reading skills.
Speaking about the impact of the reading scheme, Liz Day, head teacher at Oldfield Primary, said, “It is a simple yet highly effective partnership with volunteers from Tata Global Beverages. It has had a profound impact on the standards of children’s reading, in a school where over 90 per cent of the children are from ethnic minorities”.
Jane Osborne, a Senior Secretary and Tata Global Beverages’ Reading Scheme Co-ordinator, is proud to be a part of it, “I’ve been involved from the start of this scheme and have witnessed many children improving their reading skills. Each term we get to know the children in our reading group and they remember us as they move up in school years. It’s good to have the opportunity to get out of the office environment and put something back into the community.”