The 5% Club

Type	Non-profit organization
Founded	2013
Headquarters	London
Key people	Leo Quinn, Founder
Website	The 5% Club

The 5% Club is a not-for-profit corporate membership organisation focused on promoting apprenticeships and other "earn-to-learn" programmes in the UK.^[1][2]

Founded by Leo Quinn in 2013,^[3] its stated purpose is to address the high levels of youth unemployment and chronic skills shortage in today's society.^[4] Its secretariat is increasingly working with government to provide a bridge between the corporate and public sector,^[5] with Members of Parliament describing it as the 'gold standard' for businesses supporting skill development.^[6] The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has also endorsed The 5% Club and upon its launch, publicly urged British industry to strive to commit to the 5% employment target.^[7]

Membership Criteria

Upon becoming a member of The 5% Club, companies sign a Charter.^[8] The charter seeks commitment in five areas:

• Committing to helping the country's growth agenda and acknowledge the importance of graduates and apprentices to business
• Developing the skill sets of the country’s young people as both a business and social imperative
• Playing a part in addressing youth unemployment and skills shortage
• Pledging to work towards having a minimum 5% of the UK workforce enrolled on formalised apprentice, sponsored student and/or graduate development schemes within five years
• Measuring and reporting on the member’s progress annually against the above metric in their Corporate Social Responsibility section of their Annual Report and Accounts or equivalent document

Notable Members

As of February 2016, 153 organisations had signed up to The 5% Club.^[9] Notable members are given below.^[10]

• Airbus Group, Founding Member
• Atkins, Founding Member
• Babcock, Founding Member
• Balfour Beatty
• KPMG
• Lockheed Martin
• MBDA, Founding Member
• Ministry of Defence
• QinetiQ, Founding Member
• Redrow
• Renishaw, Founding Member
• Seimens
• Serco
• Sharp
• Unison
• Vision Express

References

1. http://www.5percentclub.org.uk/
2. The 5% Club
3. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a37f326c-4cdd-11e5-9b5d-89a026fda5c9.html
4. Skills survey shows job vacancies and skills shortages increase, gov.uk
5. Global engineering company and housebuilder among new members of The 5% Club
6. Cabinet Office / Crown Commercial Service, Procurement Policy Note 14/15: supporting apprenticeships and skills through public procurement, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-1415-supporting-apprenticeships-and-skills-through-public-procurement accessed 28 August 2015
7. CBI backs training target campaign
8. The 5% Club Charter [: http://5percentclub.org.uk/Charter.pdf]
9. The Financial Times
10. http://www.balfourbeatty.com/careers/scottish-apprenticeship-week-2016/