Celebrating 20 years of
inspirational youth engagement

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Ahead Partnership, a pioneering ESG specialist that has positively impacted the lives of over 600,000 young people across the UK since it was founded in Leeds in 2004.

Ahead Partnership was born out of the realisation that employers could play a vital role in bridging the gap between the school curriculum and the needs of specific sectors, as well as helping to support young people.

Its unique partnership model sees it bring together public and private sector businesses to develop and deliver bespoke skills and careers programmes to promote upwards social mobility.

These programmes are designed to support young people, particularly those facing barriers such as underrepresentation or disability, to reach their full potential, as well as broadening their access to opportunity across multiple key growth sectors. To date, they have been delivered in collaboration with more than 21,000 volunteers across 4,000 organisations nationwide.

Ahead Partnership was established by former lawyer Stephanie Burras CBE who worked closely with Leeds City Council and Pinsent Masons to understand how best to unite the public and private sectors behind the shared goal of youth engagement. This early-stage focus on public and private sector collaboration continues to influence the business’s operating model to date.

Improving young people’s employability skills, building a strong pipeline of future talent, and helping to address skills gaps across multiple regions and sectors to promote inclusive growth, have been and continue to be the business’s key goals.

Over the past two decades, Ahead Partnership has expanded into a national operation, now supported by a 50-strong team. As well as its focus on youth engagement, Ahead Partnership allows employers to provide vital volunteering, mentorship and development opportunities to their own staff, helping to boost employee engagement and retention, as well as bolstering their ESG credentials.

Its long-term partners include sector leaders and household names such as MEPC, John Lewis Partnership, Landsec and Arcadis.

Running co-designed programmes for businesses across key sectors such as sustainability, built environment, professional services and digital, Ahead Partnership has given 125,000 young people in Leeds alone access to interactive careers and skills events, workshops, mentorship, and hands-on experiences, designed to impact across different key stages of their schooling.

These bespoke programmes equip young people with the knowledge and confidence to pursue avenues that promise fantastic opportunities for their future careers, while supporting businesses in securing a more diverse future workforce across a range of disciplines.

Megan Lipp, Head of Development at Ahead Partnership, said: “While we now have a national reach, Leeds has always been an ideal base for springboarding our ideas, and in many ways is our spiritual home. The city’s vibrant corporate culture and strong ethos of collaboration have been instrumental in our success, and together have created a model that we have replicated in cities across the UK.

“We’ve learned over the past two decades that our collaborative approach is an effective way of providing both young people and our business partners with skills development opportunities. Across the country, we have seen more and more companies embed ESG into the very fabric of their businesses, showing their commitment to their teams, communities and the environment.”

Jon Riley, Head of Leeds at Pinsent Masons, said: “At Pinsent Masons, we have believed in the mission of Ahead Partnership since day one, and are proud to have supported them through 20 years of dedicated work.

“The efforts of Stephanie and her team have facilitated the building of meaningful connections between our employees and the next generation of talent wanting to know more about a career in diversifying the legal profession. We’ve met so many incredible young people on our journey with Ahead Partnership and feel the impact of their voices in the work that we do.

“We look forward to continuing to collaborate with Ahead Partnership as we benefit from its long-term impact in our future industry and in our ESG goals.”

Despite operating through challenges such as the 2008 financial crash, to the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, the company’s ethos of partnership working has allowed it to collaborate with  industry-leading businesses to refine the programmes on offer.

Megan said: “We have put a lot of effort into adapting our programmes in response to recent world events to make sure they are contemporary, appealing and relevant. It’s imperative to us that we are able to tailor our programmes to suit emerging skills needs and the requirements of the workforce of the future.

“With ESG constantly evolving, we need to stay ahead of the curve, so we are keen to continue developing our work in close collaboration with young voices, schools and partners.”

For more information on Ahead Partnership, please visit: https://www.aheadpartnership.org.uk/.