One Aim and Primary Business Partnership wins ‘best approach to sustainability’ in NDA Supply Chain Awards.

One Aim and Primary Business Partnership wins ‘best approach to sustainability’ in NDA Supply Chain Awards.

The OneAim Joint venture has won the NDA’s Best Approach to Sustainability Award 2022 for the Primary Business Partnership (PBP), the initiative developed and delivered by the Centre for Leadership Performance that matches businesses and primary schools in West Cumbria to inspire the next generation of young people.

The Primary Business Partnership programme is focused on helping primary school children become more aware of the career opportunities by coordinating existing initiatives to remove barriers and supporting local businesses to connect with their future workforce. The Centre for Leadership Performance developed the concept with OneAim and provides resource to run the day-to-day element of the programme for the PBP with additional funding from OneAim and Sellafield.

Best Approach to Sustainability is a new category in the NDA supply chain awards and recognises that ‘when we get it right, we are ensuring what we do today will help deliver better outcomes future generations.’ As focus and attention is changing around sustainability so are the expectations. It identifies collaborative approaches that will pay back in both the long and short term.

One Aim, a joint venture between Jacobs and Mitie, formed the Primary Business Partnership in 2017 and the CforLP has been responsible for delivery since the initiative began. The brokerage links primary schools and employers in West Cumbria to show children opportunities and helps them to dream big and have fun thinking about their future careers. Children at primary level are already making decisions that impact their future and the PBP supports schools to identify what they need for career-related learning opportunities.

The Primary Business Partnership continues to grow with more than 170 local businesses involved and over 12,000 interactions between businesses and children.

Rob McBride (OneAIM Framework Director) said:

“The Primary Business Partnership team (with local businesses) thoroughly deserve this award, following 4 years of hard work, dedication and determination to really embrace and drive the initiative. It is making a genuine difference to the information and choices available, with added resourced skill sets to help shape the ‘future workforce’ decision-making within the region (as well as being great fun!). I am so proud of everyone involved and can’t wait to see the next phase of progress in the journey.“

“We are delighted to see the success of Primary Business Partnership recognised in the NDA award, and are proud of CforLP’s collaboration with OneAim to help deliver a brighter future and more positive direction for so many young people in Cumbria.”

Claire Johnson PBP Programme Manager

The NDA Supply chain awards launched in 2011 aim to engage the suppliers that are essential to achieving the NDA’s decommissioning mission.