bp announces partnership with The Prince’s Trust to provide retail employment for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds

• Up to 50 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds will benefit from work experience in bp’s UK retail sites over the next 12 months.
• Commitment to offer at least half of the participants a permanent contract, with 11 offered so far.
• Partnership attracts external talent to support bp’s store recruitment strategy, filling resource gaps and to help build our future resource pipeline.

bp has entered into a partnership with The Prince’s Trust that will help up to 50 disadvantaged young people get into paid work across four programmes in the next year. A comprehensive ‘Get into Retail’ programme, designed by bp and The Prince’s Trust, will give participants valuable work experience, complemented by employability training.

Sonya Adams, VP mobility and convenience retail for bp in the UK commented: “We believe in the transformative power of opportunity. Partnering with The Prince’s Trust to launch ‘Get into Retail’ reflects our commitment to empowering disadvantaged young people, providing them with the skills and support to build meaningful futures, whilst fostering a diverse, inclusive retail business across our UK network. We are thrilled by the positive impact we’ve achieved so far and look forward to building on this momentum, creating even more opportunities in the future.”

The partnership kicked off in May 2023 with an initial cohort of seven young people, put forward by The Prince’s Trust, taking part in the ‘Get into Retail’ programme in the Milton Keynes area. The second cohort completed their work experience in November 2023 around south London. To date 11 of the 14 participants have secured permanent employment with bp.

Alex Fleming, Head of Business Development at The Prince’s Trust commented: “We’re delighted to continue our work with bp. Their vision for enhanced equity in the workplace resonates with our mission of supporting young people who are facing disadvantage and adversity, and we are thankful for their commitment to helping young people into employment with the Get into Retail programme. The Prince’s Trust has helped one million young people since we were founded in 1976 and our partnership with bp will play a vital role in continuing these efforts.”

The next two ‘Get into Retail’ programmes will run in North London in January and in Kent in March 2024. To learn more about The Prince’s Trust and to sign up, please visit www.princes-trust.org.uk/contact-us.

Social mobility at bp

In 2022, bp launched the Social Mobility Framework for Action, to help break down barriers so all can thrive regardless of background.

bp believes that improving the representation, inclusion, retention, and advancement of employees from diverse social backgrounds will contribute to it becoming a more competitive company and even better place to work.

As part of the social mobility framework for action, bp has included an ambition to deliver over 500 annual work experience opportunities world wide by 2024. With a focus on social mobility outreach, we are aiming to create immersive, hands-on experiences, centred around building skills for the future, such as this partnership with The Prince’s Trust.