SUCCESS STORIES: From left, Alan Johnson, Mark Boothby, Alex Mortimer and Kieran Poskitt discussing the benefits of promoting opportunity
By Phil Ascough
A Business which has become a double royal award winner for its efforts to change people’s lives has reaffirmed its commitment to use the honours to raise awareness of the benefits of social mobility.
Sewell Group is now one of only two companies in the UK to have achieved, back-to-back, a Queen’s Award and King’s Award for Promoting Opportunity.
Receiving the latest accolade from the King’s representative in East Yorkshire, Mark Boothby and Alex Mortimer told how the Queen’s Award in 2021 paved the way to the King’s Award this year by inspiring new initiatives to create opportunities for more young people in the region.
Mark, joint managing director of Sewell Construction, said: “The Queen’s Award gave us a catalyst for doing more and provided a platform to show other businesses what they can achieve. We are immensely proud to have won both awards in recognition for doing the right thing – something we have always stood for as a business.”
Alex, finance director at Sewell Retail, added: “We’ve always naturally wanted to help people and give them opportunities – all of our managers and supervisors across the business have grown into their roles with the company.
“Our partnerships with the likes of CatZero and the work experience placements we offer also have a business benefit – we find some great employees out of it, which I don’t think other companies always see.”
The presentation ceremony at Sewell Group’s headquarters in Geneva Way, Hull, was hosted by Alan Johnson, the former MP and current Chancellor of the University of Hull. Alan is also chair of Sewell Futures, a Community Interest Company (CIC) which was set up after the Queen’s Award success to provide distinctive, meaningful and inclusive opportunities to help drive social mobility.
AWARD: His Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant, Jim Dick OBE with some of the team at Sewell Group after the presentation ceremony
Alongside Sewell Futures came the GATEway programme, which pledged a tripling of investment to help more young people into the world of work through a graduate programme, apprenticeships, traineeships and work experience opportunities.
Sewell Group, a now part employee-owned business, is also celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. Alan told an audience comprised almost entirely of Sewell Group people: “I have been around this city for 30 years and I have watched companies grow and prosper but I don’t think any company has done as much as Sewell Group to take that growth and prosperity and invest it back into the community form whence they came.
“This is your company and there’s not many companies I go to round here that can say that.”
The award was presented to Mark, Alex and Kieran Poskitt by His Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant, Jim Dick OBE. As a key figure in setting up the CatZero scheme in 2008 to give young people opportunities and training, he recalled how Sewell Group chair Paul Sewell was eager to help.
He said: “At the opening ceremony I said to Paul I really appreciated all the help. He said it just seemed the right thing to do, and that’s always stuck in my mind. I’m sure that’s why you are doing all the work with social mobility. It’s not just Paul, it’s everybody in the company.”
Paul stayed in the background throughout the presentation as his colleagues did the talking. Alex shared the story of Zayla Hutchinson.
She said: “Zayla applied for a load of jobs and kept getting knocked back. She had the right attitude and wanted a job but couldn’t get one.
PRESENTATION: Jim Dick OBE with Mark Boothby and Alex Mortimer outside the Sewell Group offices in Geneva Way, Hull
“She met CatZero who helped her on that journey and in conjunction with us managed to get a work placement. We see the power of work experience in all its forms. At the end of it we offered her a job because she was amazing.”
Alan outlined the scale of the challenge facing the country: “Hull has got double the national average of NEETs and the Humber is the place where employers are least likely to give work experience. There’s a correlation there.”
Mark said: “How you start in life shouldn’t hold you back in what you want to achieve. When young people get an opportunity, they are also inspired and they can show how they want to shape their life and what they are capable of doing. Without the opportunity they might not be able to do that.”
Alan highlighted Kieran as someone who was introduced to Sewell Group with two weeks of work experience and progressed through the business to the point where he now supports work experience placements himself.
Kieran said: “At the end of mine I thought sitting in an office all day wasn’t for me so I applied for an apprenticeship as a joiner, did my course in three years, then two years supervising sites and then into site management, which is what I’m doing now.”
Asked by Alan whether he would have made such progress without the investment into his training, Kieran replied: “No. I would still be a joiner.”