Social Mobility Pledge: Behind the scenes with our Apprentice Developers

Enjoy this behind the scenes look at our apprentices starring in a video for Baltic Training, the apprenticeships specialists in IT and software development.

Our apprentices work in the True Potential Academy to hone their skills as developers. At True Potential, we are passionate about helping talent progress, which is why we were one of the first businesses to sign the Social Mobility Pledge, which was launched by Justine Greening MP and the Harrison Centre for Social Mobility in Spring 2018. We’re delighted that the Pledge now covers 1.8 million UK employees.

Becoming a Social Mobility Pledge accredited employer demonstrates commitment to accessing and progressing talent from all backgrounds. Social mobility has been a problem in UK society for decades, and 69% of young people believe that a ‘class ceiling’ is holding them back in their careers.

The Social Mobility Pledge premise is simple, to support people from all backgrounds through education and training. Things like accents or where you started out really shouldn’t matter in business. That’s why the Social Mobility Pledge supports recruitment processes that are open and fair to all.

At True Potential we’ve always been a big believer in young people, and we have an excellent track record in helping the next generation of talent emerge through apprenticeships and our academy scheme. Where you’re coming from isn’t a factor in our business, it is all about your ambition in the now.

Lucy, appearing in our behind the scenes video, is training to become a developer. “The True Potential Academy takes on a wave of trainee developers from other teams each year,” she said. “This is a fantastic opportunity for someone like me, who has always had an interest in Development, but didn’t have any experience and thought that it might be too late for an opportunity like this to come my way.”

Lucy is currently learning all of the basic tools and techniques of software development through a variety of learning resources in order to develop her skillset.  In the next few months she will use these newly acquired skills and move into a support developer role, which will involve investigating and resolving technical issues reported by end users.

Well done to our amazing apprentices, they’re doing a fantastic job in ensuring True Potential’s technology is simple, effective, and unique.

Here’s how we’ve implemented the Social Mobility Pledge at True Potential –

• True Potential has partnered with the Beacon of Light School in Sunderland. It promotes education by delivering groundbreaking programmes to improve learning via engaging purpose-built classrooms, innovative teaching techniques and interactive spaces.
• A group of five apprentices are now gaining valuable experience at True Potential, learning key IT and digital skills. Several former apprentices now have full time employed roles at True Potential.
  
• Working in partnership with our recruitment agencies, individuals’ names are removed from CVs before they reach us. This places a greater emphasis on a candidate’s complete background and achievements when assessing their suitability for the roles we offer at True Potential.
• “Addressing social mobility means opening people’s eyes to opportunities and how to grasp them.” David Harrison, Chairman, True Potential.