Foodservice group BaxterStorey and outsourcing company Carillion have become the latest major employers in Swindon to join a pioneering education programme in the town.
The government-endorsed scheme, called Business Class, is led by responsible business group Business in the Community (BITC) and aims to create effective and mutually beneficial partnerships between businesses and secondary schools facing challenging circumstances.
Under the scheme, businesses help students facing social disadvantage are helped to achieve their goals and develop successful working lives. 
BaxterStorey has been partnered with the Uplands Educational Trust College while confirmation of Carillion’s partner school is expected imminently.
Already signed up to the Business Class programme in Swindon are Nationwide Building Society and Synergy Health, the medical sterilisation group, who are partnering Churchfields Academy, Swindon Academy and Isambard Community School.
Across the UK, more than 470 schools have been involved in Business Class, supported by 1,000-plus businesses – a third of them small and medium-sized firms – helping 170,000 young people.
BaxterStorey regional director Graham Olds said: “We see our contribution in supporting the Uplands Educational Trust College as an opportunity to share our skills and experience with those who need it most.
“As a business, we place great emphasis on supporting the communities in which we operate and see this partnership as an ideal platform to go that one step further.”
Uplands headteacher Genti Mullaliu said: “We are delighted to be in partnership with BaxterStorey. We share the same ambition of equipping young people with special educational needs with the right skills for the world of work.
“We strongly believe in the partnership between employment and education to enable young people to help themselves with their future employment decisions and BaxterStorey is an ideal partner to support us in achieving our aims.”
Carillion account director Joe McGuffie added: “We are committed to ‘making tomorrow a better place’; providing services and creating places that bring lasting benefits to our customers and the communities in which we live and work.
“Business Class is a perfect project for us to be involved in and it’s a privilege to be able to guide and support young people into future employment possibilities within the Swindon area.”
BaxterStorey and Carillion – both based at Nationwide’s head office, where they provide catering and facilities management respectively – will provide three-year packages of free support to their partnered school across a range of areas which, through a detailed needs assessment process, the school has identified as most pressing.
They will also work in geographical clusters, offering support on wide-ranging issues such as governorship, headteacher mentoring, change management, attendance support, employability activities and curriculum enrichment.”
BITC Swindon education manager Annabel Wallis, pictured above, said: “It is fantastic to have both BaxterStorey and Carillion on board with our Business Class programme and we look forward to the exciting plans that the partners create in the coming months.”
BITC aims to grow the programme to include 11 secondary schools in Swindon and is calling for more businesses to establish partnerships with schools to support the town’s young people in building successful working lives.
To find out more, visit www.bitc.org.uk/programmes/business-class or email annabel.wallis@bitc.org.uk.
