Pioneer employers tackling ethnic disparities in the workplace

In a three-year partnership with Business in the Community (BITC), we’re supporting employers to inspire, hire, and support ethnically diverse young people to thrive at work.

After our 2024 Survey uncovered the stark reality that almost half (48%) of ethnically diverse young people in the UK experience discrimination when entering the world of work – our Talent Unlocked partnership wit BITC has been designed to open employers’ eyes to this reality, and to work with them to do something about it.

Employers have a key role to play in creating a future where every young person can achieve good work. And with a quarter of the UK’s future workforce coming from minoritised ethnic backgrounds, there’s a golden opportunity for employers to strengthen their workforces by supporting a whole generation of diverse talent. Through our Talent Unlocked partnership, we are empowering employers to change their behaviour, policy and practice to unlock the potential of young people from Black, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and other ethnically diverse backgrounds.

We’re delighted that leading employers from a wide range of sectors have joined our two-year Pioneer Programme, where receiving intensive support from BITC to uncover and break down ethnic disparities in their organisations.

Among others, we’re joined by: 

• Pertemps, a leading UK recruitment agency.
• Network Rail (Wales and Western), transport provider.
• Newcastle Building Society, the eighth largest building society in the UK.
• SLR Consulting, an international sustainability consultancy firm.
• WJ Group, the UK’s leading road markings and highway safety organisation.

Through supporting these pioneering employers to break down barriers and create clear pathways for ethnically diverse young people to succeed in their workplaces, we aim to develop insights on best practice that can be scaled across industries, to drive widespread employer action.

Nishi Mayor, Director of Employer Engagement and Partnerships at Youth Futures Foundation, said: “We are delighted to be working with BITC through the Pioneer programme which will help us to support ethnically diverse young people who are not in education, employment or training to secure and thrive in good work. The insights and best practice established through this programme will be integral to understanding what works in breaking down the barriers these young people face when accessing employment. I am optimistic that we will be able to scale the evidence generated through the Pioneer programme into practices that can be used UK-wide to foster inclusivity and equity across the UK workforce, unlocking a generation of talent.”

Shannon Rivers, Head of Inclusion and Wellbeing Advisory at Business in the Community, said: “Every young person deserves a clear pathway into employment. Our work with Youth Futures Foundation as part of our three-year partnership has been vital to gather insight into the barriers that many ethnically diverse young people face when accessing employment. We look forward to working alongside Youth Futures Foundation and with organisations across the UK to collect strategy and best practice and come up with solutions to tackle these barriers and ensure that they are removed once and for all.”

As well as our Pioneer Programme, in our Talent Unlocked partnership with Business in the Community we are also delivering a series of Seeing is Believing visits, to connect business leaders with young people in their local communities. Our next venture will be to Burnley in November.