LDC has been recognised at The Prince’s Trust Partnership Awards as it took home the prestigious ‘Partner of the Year’ award in recognition of its ongoing support for the UK’s leading youth charity.

The awards celebrate the power of partnerships and the difference they can make to the lives of young people. The charity, founded in 1976 by His Majesty King Charles III, works with young people from regions right across the UK and helps them to build the confidence and skills to live, learn and earn.

LDC first partnered with The Prince’s Trust back in 2019 to help inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. Through its support of the Enterprise programme, which helps 18-to-30-year-olds turn their big business ideas into reality, via its Explore Enterprise programme, LDC’s funding and support has already helped more than 3,350 young people and contributes towards a more diverse group of future business leaders; a quarter of the young entrepreneurs supported by the Enterprise programme are from ethnic minority backgrounds and more than half are female.

In 2022, LDC announced it had more than doubled its commitment to the charity with a new five-year expanded nationwide partnership making LDC the leading supporter of young entrepreneurs at The Prince’s Trust. The extended initiative aims to help up to 10,000 additional young entrepreneurs to start, sustain and grow their own business through an extension of the Enterprise programme launching in 2024.

Outside of the funding and support LDC provides to the Enterprise Programme, in the last 12 months, a number of young entrepreneurs have also been given the opportunity to network and promote their businesses and products at various LDC events, and LDC has commissioned and bought the work of a number of young artists to display in its network of regional offices.

Toby Rougier, Chief Executive at LDC, said: “It’s been a real privilege to partner with The Prince’s Trust over the last four years and I’ve enjoyed meeting some of the impressive young entrepreneurs we’ve supported.”