Virgin Trains has become the first train operating company to be named an accredited Social Mobility Employer, as part of a nation-wide drive to improve social mobility in the UK.

The train operator has signed up to the Social Mobility Pledge, which encourages businesses to play a role in tackling social mobility by providing training and employment opportunities to local people from disadvantaged communities.

The Social Mobility Pledge commits employers and businesses to play their part in ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential – irrespective of background. In its 2017 ‘State of Social Mobility in Britain’ report, the Sutton Trust found that the UK ranks near the bottom for income mobility across OECD nations.

The campaign was launched in Parliament in March 2018 by former Secretary of State for Education, Justine Greening MP and now covers more than 1.8 million employees. It is a commitment from businesses large and small across Britain to become a Social Mobility Pledge accredited employer, by taking three simple steps:

1. Partnership - with schools or colleges to provide coaching through quality careers advice, enrichment experience and/ or mentoring to people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances.

2. Access - providing structured work experience and/or apprenticeship opportunities to people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances

3. Recruitment - adopting open employee recruitment practices which promote a level playing field for people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances, such as name blind recruitment or contextual recruitment.

The pledge is backed by major employers such as BT, Aviva, Adidas, ITV, True Potential, KPMG and others.