On 12 January 2012, the Deputy Prime Minister announced that more than 100 businesses – employing over two million people in Britain with a turnover of more than £500 billion – have signed up to the Business Compact on social mobility. Five of those business’s Atkins, Carillion, MITIE, RIBA and RICS work within the built environment sector.

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. Businesses and organisations which sign up to the

• support communities and schools to raise aspirations through, for example, reading and mentoring schemes or encouraging their staff to go out to schools and inspire pupils about their careers.
• open opportunities to all young people by advertising their work experience places through schools, online and in other public forums, rather than just giving places to informal contacts.
• make access to internships open and transparent, with financial support such as providing expenses or accommodation, or by treating the internship as a job that can be paid under National Minimum Wage law.
• recruit fairly and without discrimination, using application forms that don’t allow candidates to be screened out because they went to the wrong school or come from a different ethnic group (including through using name-blank and school-blank applications where appropriate).

I know a lot of you are already doing this work independently so why not find out how you can get involved with the business compact.