“Social mobility for me isn’t just a buzz phrase, it’s personal,” says Kerry Dryburgh, bp’s Executive Vice President for People, Culture and Communications.
bp are this year’s champion supporters for the Organisation of the Year category at the SOMOs, held on October 3rd.
In this fascinating chat ahead of the awards, Kerry details bp’s apprenticeship initiatives, gives insight into her own life experience of social mobility, and discusses the importance of social mobility work across companies.
Why is social mobility important to you and bp?
bp is undergoing the largest transformation in our 115-year history, moving from international oil company to integrated energy company. To do this, we’re investing in today’s energy system, which is predominantly oil and gas, while also helping build out tomorrow’s.
To deliver on these big plans, we need a diverse range of perspectives to drive innovation and a variety of skills to tackle our toughest challenges. We need to recruit and retain the best people – regardless of their background or identity. That aim – to open opportunity to people regardless of their background or identity – is particularly important to me. It’s also central to bp’s ethos.
I come from a working-class background and started my career journey with an apprenticeship when I was 16. At bp, apprenticeships are just one of the ways we are opening opportunity and increasing the talent pool, and we’ve developed our apprenticeships in line with the future skills our business needs in trading and engineering, as well as in our convenience and mobility businesses. These programmes provide a real alternative to university-only degrees. Importantly, they are open not only to young people at the start of their working life, but to people at any point in their career, including bp colleagues who have decided they would like to develop new skills and try something new.
We’re looking to expand apprenticeships to over 2,000 participants by 2030 and also provide 500 students globally with work experience placements by Dec. 2024 – a goal we met a year ahead of schedule. Ultimately, we’re focused on building a thriving business that empowers people to step up to new challenges and reach their potential, no matter what their background is. That’s good on an individual basis, and what we need to deliver our strategy.
What advice would you give to other companies looking to improve social mobility?
It starts with a recognition that there is no one right background or one correct path to success and achievement. Once you’re open to making careers accessible, you can start to think creatively and innovatively about how to bring in and develop talent. What works in one sector may not be quite right for another.
We’re investing in innovative programmes to ensure that we recruit, develop and retain talent for the future skills that our business and the sector needs – with one of our focus areas being social mobility. We also know that education is key to advancement, so we have developed close partnerships in many of the communities where we operate. Partnerships like the one we have with Redcar and Cleveland College, where we are helping fund student scholarships at the college’s Clean Energy Education Hub. And our partnership with the Prince’s Trust helps participants access valuable work experience and employability training in retail, with many participants from our program securing permanent employment with bp.
We have learned a lot over the last few years, and we believe that companies like ours have a responsibility to support other businesses and community partners in their efforts to advance social mobility. We see opportunity for further collaboration around skills development – looking at demand for skills and then how we work with the education and training sector who provide those skills so that we can develop a workforce fit for the jobs of the future. Only then will we be able to ensure the competitiveness of both bp and industry in the UK.
Why did you get involved in the SOMOs?
Social mobility for me isn’t just a buzz phrase. It’s personal. Despite the opportunities I enjoyed, I actually spent a lot of my career quite embarrassed that I didn’t go to university and that my start was different than other people’s. That’s changed over the years and now I couldn’t be prouder to share how I got my start. My apprenticeship helped give me valuable workplace experience and qualifications. I went on to do my A-levels and eventually got an MBA, while moving my way up the career ladder.
Because of my journey, I want to remove the stigma that can still exist around a person’s background or start in life, so no one will feel embarrassed like I did, and instead embrace the way they got their start. Greater awareness of the benefits of social mobility action along with the need for the development of employability skills in young people is key – and it’s why organizations like Making the Leap are so important.
Why are the SOMOs so important to highlighting social mobility within the corporate world?
I often say you can’t be what you can’t see. That was certainly true in my case. I had wonderful mentors and experiences which helped to open my mind to what was possible. I care deeply about making the workplace better and more equitable – that’s the legacy I want to leave and bp gives me the opportunity to do this – with the full support of our board, CEO and leadership team – who all want to make a positive impact for our employees and community.
Organizations like Making the Leap and the SOMOs are crucial to not only showing people what’s possible, but also showing employers the value of bringing in talent from a range of backgrounds.
