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Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister has announced that more than 100 British businesses have signed the government’s Business Compact. The Business Compact forms a key part of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Social Mobility Strategy, launched in April 2011, which sets out the government’s determination to ensure every individual is free to achieve, regardless of the circumstances of their birth. Businesses and organisations which sign up to the Compact must agree to:  

‘support communities and schools to raise aspirations’ through, for example, reading and mentoring schemes or encouraging their staff to go out to schools and inspire pupils about their careers; ‘open opportunities to all young people’ by advertising their work experience places through schools, online and in other public forums, rather than just giving places to informal contacts; 

‘make access to internships open and transparent, with financial support’ such as providing expenses or accommodation, or by treating the internship as a job that can be paid under National Minimum Wage law; and

‘recruit fairly and without discrimination, using application forms that don’t allow candidates to be screened out because they went to the wrong school or come from a different ethnic group’ (including through using name-blank and school-blank applications where appropriate).