Sodexo hosts business leaders to explore how business can help tackle barriers to social mobility
Sodexo UK & Ireland welcomed senior business leaders to London for a King's Seeing is Believing visit with Business in the Community (BITC), bringing organisations together to see first-hand the barriers that can limit social mobility and to explore how business can help create greater opportunity.
Hosted by Jean Renton, Chief Executive Officer of Sodexo UK & Ireland, the visit examined how challenges such as poverty, education inequality, housing insecurity and limited access to good work can prevent people from reaching their full potential.
Representatives from organisations including Atos, DLA Piper, Hogan Lovells, BDO, London School of Economics, KPMG and The Purpose Coalition joined the visit to hear directly from community organisations and individuals with lived experience of the challenges affecting social mobility.
Delegates gained a deeper understanding of the need for a joined-up approach to improving social mobility, and the role businesses have in this through visits and discussions with several of Sodexo’s charity partners which work across education, employability, food insecurity and homelessness support.
The charities were:
The Switch – a charity helping children and young people develop the skills, confidence, and aspirations needed to access careers through employability, career awareness, mentoring, volunteering, and work experience programmes.
Oasis UK – a charity working to create inclusive communities where everyone can reach their full potential through high-quality education and healthcare for those in need.
Trussell – a charity providing emergency food and practical support to people experiencing financial hardship and hunger.
Change Please – a charity focusing on providing skills, confidence, income, and ongoing support to those experiencing homelessness to help them achieve long-term stability and independence. Through barista training academies, participants receive professional training, paid work opportunities, and a range of wraparound support services to address the barriers preventing them from securing long-term employment.
The visit reflects Sodexo's commitment to supporting people and strengthening places through creating pathways into employment, developing skills and working in partnership with organisations that help individuals overcome barriers to opportunity.
At Sodexo, our ambition is to support people and strengthen places. Visits like this are a powerful reminder of the challenges many people face, but also of the determination, expertise and partnership making a real difference every day.
Creating stronger communities means helping people access the foundations they need to thrive, whether that is food security, education, skills or meaningful employment. These issues are often deeply connected and addressing them requires joined-up solutions.
The King's Seeing is Believing programme brings these challenges to life in a way that no report or statistic can. Hearing first-hand from people who rely on vital support services creates greater understanding, strengthens our resolve to tackle inequality and helps us identify where we can have the greatest impact.
By working together across business, charities, communities and government, we can break down barriers, create opportunities and build a more resilient future for everyone.
Talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. Too many people still face barriers shaped by where they grow up, the networks around them, and the pathways available into good work. If we are serious about improving social mobility, business must move beyond good intentions and act with greater focus, urgency, and collective ambition.
BITC exists to help turn that ambition into action. Our role is to bring businesses together, connect them with communities and organisations closest to the issues, and create the conditions for practical, place-based change. By helping employers listen, learn, and collaborate, we can reduce duplication, scale what works, and open up clearer routes into skills, employment, and progression.