Unlocking Opportunity: The Power of Partnerships to Create Opportunities for Young People

As we come to the end of 2025, it has been a year of challenges and opportunities for the Rio Ferdinand Foundation as, like many charities and businesses, we have grappled with a changing economic, social and political environment around the globe.

As a Foundation our approach has always been focused on partnerships, on collaborations and on how we can add value to the work of others, and how they can add value to our work, to create an environment where the ‘sum is bigger than the parts’.

This approach has never been more important than this year where resources are getting scarcer and the grant making world is oversubscribed and under pressure, where poverty levels are growing and where opportunities for young people seem to be shrinking-with one in eight young people under the age of 25 not in employment or training/education according to government figures.

In an ever-evolving world, young people are navigating industries that are increasingly competitive, diverse, and fast-moving. Sport, music, and the creative arts, sectors that have long inspired passion and aspiration, now offer more varied career pathways than ever before. Yet many young people still lack visibility of these opportunities or the networks to access them.

This is where our cross-sector collaboration becomes essential. When organisations join forces, combining expertise, resources, and influence, they create clearer pathways for young people to explore, learn, and thrive. We believe the Rio Ferdinand Foundation (RFF) provides a standout example of how strategic partnerships can open doors for young people who might otherwise remain on the outside looking in.

Many young people grow up associating sport, music, or fashion with a narrow set of roles, typically the ones they see on screen. Without access to industry insights, they may not realise that these sectors are powered by a vast ecosystem of professions: creative, technical, strategic, operational, and entrepreneurial.

Why collaboration matters

Our partnerships with industry partners offer a solution. By collaborating, organisations can bring young people behind the curtain to explore roles they may never have known existed, from production, design, and event management to marketing, digital content, data analysis, and community engagement.

Connections are a real currency in the creative industries. Collaborative initiatives give young people access to professionals, mentors, and work environments that help them understand industry expectations, build confidence, and begin constructing their own networks.

Throughout 2025, the Rio Ferdinand Foundation worked with partners across a range of industries, including Warner Music, Kiss / Bauer Media, Ralph Lauren, Festival Republic, Live Nation, UEFA, the Jockey Club and most recently Lyle and Scott, to deliver training, careers events, workplace mentoring and work placements. These opportunities enhanced the participant experience and included paid work and internships, bursaries for traineeships, and more across the UK and Ireland.

At the end of 2025, we also launched a new online learning platform to make these resources accessible to more young people.

The Impact: A More Inclusive Future

Together, these collaborations do more than raise aspirations, they create real, tangible pathways that young people can step into. They ensure that opportunities in sport, music, fashion, and the arts are not limited to those with existing connections but are open to talented young people from all backgrounds.

As we move into 2026, the need for bold, committed partnerships has never been clearer. The challenges facing young people cannot not be solved by organisations working alone. They require collaboration, long-term thinking, and decisive action.

This is a chance to go beyond short-term support and become part of a proven partnership model that creates lasting opportunities, drives social mobility, unlocks potential, and strengthens industries through inclusion.

Together we can open doors, share expertise, and build pathways that change lives.

Together we can be the change.