Balfour Beatty
Continuing to Build Better Futures with
Balfour Beatty.
Balfour Beatty has been a dedicated corporate supporter of
The Trust since 2009. In 2013, they renewed their support, and at a
higher level, making them our first ever Gold Patrons from the
construction industry.
Balfour Beatty strongly believes in enhancing the social
environment of the many communities in which they work. Our
partnership began as Balfour Beatty celebrated its centenary year
back in 2009 and launched the Building Better Futures community
engagement programme whilst at the same time establishing the
Balfour Beatty Charitable Trust. The purpose of the Trust is to
advance the lives and relieve the needs of young people suffering
from disadvantage by supporting the provision of advice, training
and education.
Mark Peters, a Trustee of the Balfour Beatty Charitable Trust,
commented:
With high levels of youth unemployment,
employability and employment are primary areas of focus for the
Trust. If we are to avoid the risk of a lost generation, we believe
it is essential we actively engage with organisations that can
really make a positive contribution to improving the prospects for
our young people.
Over the past four years Balfour Beatty has demonstrated a
genuine desire to inspire their employees, to use their skills to
help young people through volunteering, whilst also investing
funding across our programmes. Through a combination of involvement
Balfour Beatty has donated over £1million to The Trust – an
incredible achievement which has enabled us to transform the lives
of thousands of young people across the UK.
In 2012 alone, Balfour Beatty supported 732 young people
(205 Development Awards, 430 through xl rugby, 14 on a Get into
events programme and 83 through offering work placements to those
on Get into construction).
Moving forward, the Building Better Futures trust will focus its
efforts specifically on improving the employability skills of
individuals from disadvantaged groups. In line with this, it will
continue to support the same three core programmes as it did in
2012: Development Awards, xl rugby and Get into programme.
The support for our Get into programme will be more intense than
in previous years and is therefore particularly exciting. It stems
from Balfour Beatty’s participation in the UK Commission of
Employment and Skills’ (UKCES) bid to access the Employer Ownership
of Skills fund which has enabled The Trust to leverage an
additional £200,000 for the Get into programme.
We are very much looking forward to continuing to work with Gold
Patron Balfour Beatty and its hugely passionate employees across
the business as we move into the fifth year of our partnership.