Celebrating our first B Corp Month at LDN Apprenticeships
Since I founded LDN Apprenticeships in 2010, I have always believed that business should be used as a force for good. For a long time, I entertained the idea of setting the company up as a charity or a social enterprise to reflect my desire for our business to have a positive social impact. After all, our mission is to create opportunities for diverse talent to realise their potential.
In the end, I didn’t set the company up as a charity, but we have never strayed from our purpose and the impact we create. So, in June 2022, when LDN Apprenticeships became the first apprenticeship training provider in the country to become a certified B Corp, it was a big moment for me and for the rest of the team.
What’s the buzz about B Corps?
B Corp Certification is unique because it measures a company’s entire social and environmental performance. From supply chain and input materials to charitable giving and employee benefits, B Corp Certification verifies that a business is meeting high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.
In addition to completing and verifying our B Corp score using the B Impact Assessment, we also had to meet the B Corp ‘legal requirement.’ This means we adopted specific wording into our governing documents which reflect our commitment to creating a material positive impact on society and the environment. This change places a legal duty on the Directors of LDN to protect the company’s mission and to consider wider stakeholder interests.
In all my time in business, I have not found a system which better reflects the organisation we are. At LDN, we believe in a better way of doing business. We believe that businesses can balance profit with purpose, and that we should always conduct ourselves in a way which protects the interests of our apprentices and employers, our team and community, and the environment.
Skills-led business transformation
LDN is a specialist provider of Business, Creative and Technology apprenticeships. Our programmes challenge the status quo in the sectors we serve. They introduce diversity of all sorts to the organisations we work with, helping them to build more inclusive, representative and sustainable teams. They give people who are already in work an opportunity to level up and improve their skills, and they give businesses an opportunity to invest in emerging and future skills that will transform the way they operate.
Take, for example, our Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability apprenticeship. LDN is the leading provider of this apprenticeship in the country. Our apprentices work for organisations like AstraZeneca, Mott MacDonald, Standard Chartered and many other organisations. Over 70% of our apprentices are female, 30% are from ethnic minorities and 65% are under the age of 25. Each of these apprentices are championing positive change in their organisation, driving greater impact and the principles of responsible business and sustainability.
The impact these apprentices create in their organisations and industries is no accident. We have created each of our apprenticeships to help businesses drive skills-led business transformation. Whether apprentices are training as sustainability professionals, marketeers, IT technicians or Salesforce professionals, each of them is upskilling to better themselves. In turn, the companies they work for become more highly skilled, more inclusive, and more sustainable organisations.
Our Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Apprentices taking part in a recycled art workshop during a recent Development Day @ LDN HQ.
Looking to the future
At LDN Apprenticeships, we have always been focused on supporting young people and providing high-quality apprenticeship training. Becoming a B Corp was a natural step for us, as it reflects our values and our mission to make a positive impact in the world.
We take our responsibility to the environment seriously and have implemented a range of measures to reduce our environmental impact. Achieving B Corp certification reflects our commitment to social and environmental responsibility, proving our credentials and providing us with a framework for ongoing improvement in these areas. By training young people in the skills they need to help companies operate in a more sustainable and ethical way, we are helping to build a more responsible and sustainable business community.
Becoming a B Corp and implementing our CR&S apprenticeship programme are just two of the ways LDN Apprenticeships is working to create positive change in the world.
We're committed to continuing to innovate and improve our practices to make a positive impact on society and the environment.