YPO and Wakefield College: Working together to increase opportunities for students with additional needs

YPO is a public sector buying organisation, based in Wakefield.

Founded 50 years ago by 13 local authorities, we now employ over 500 people.

In 1974, our owing local authorities came together to combine their procurement demands and achieve efficiency savings.

Today, we’re still 100% publicly owned and our profits are shared amongst our 13 founder members and 68 associate member authorities.

We provide around 100 procurement frameworks and 20,000 products to schools, local authorities and emergency services.

This means we have an excellent choice of services and products and our suppliers have been pre-vetted for the best value, quality, social value and service levels.

Our staff are split across our large warehouse and logistics operation and our office.

We have around 250 staff in our logistics team which also includes around 50 drivers for our own fleet of delivery trucks.

In an effort to create a future workforce fit for purpose, serve our communities and add social value, we recently launched a collaborative initiative with Wakefield College to help them fill in gaps around preparing for employment.

This is the step before work experience and apprenticeships and is focused on supporting those with additional needs.