Iron Mountain opens Rugby campus for inclusive learning

Iron Mountain has opened a new campus with Creating Tomorrow College at its Rugby site to help young adults with special educational needs and disabilities move into employment.

Learners aged 18 to 25 will combine specialist education with supported work placements in a live operational setting. The programme starts in September, placing students in a working business environment rather than separating study from workplace experience.

The move expands an existing partnership between the records management and storage company and the specialist college. The arrangement already operates at Iron Mountain sites in Lutterworth and Kettering, where learners gain experience in operational roles and explore work that matches their strengths and interests.

The new Rugby campus opens against the backdrop of a wide employment gap for people with learning disabilities. According to figures cited by the organisations, 4.8 per cent of adults with a learning disability are in employment, while more than 65 per cent say they want to work.

Creating Tomorrow College was set up to address that gap by making employment part of education itself. Its model combines personalised learning with structured exposure to workplace routines, expectations and relationships, aiming to improve the transition into paid work.

For Iron Mountain, the initiative also supports workforce planning. The partnership helps connect practical learning to business needs while widening recruitment channels and prompting a review of onboarding, mentoring and workplace support.

That link between inclusion and staffing strategy was central to the project.

"Too often, conversations about employing young people with special educational needs and disabilities are separated from conversations about business and workforce strategy. At Iron Mountain, we see them as an integral part of workplace inclusion. This partnership allows us to give young people of all abilities meaningful experience in a real operational environment, while helping our teams become better mentors, communicators and leaders," said Maria Torrent-March, Vice President of Warehousing and Logistics Europe, Iron Mountain.

The college described the Rugby site as another stage in its regional expansion and part of a broader effort to increase access to specialist education linked directly to employment opportunities.

"Our new Rugby Campus represents far more than a new building. It reflects our commitment to ensuring more young people with learning differences can access ambitious, meaningful futures through specialist education and inclusive employment opportunities. We are incredibly proud of how far the college has come in just six years, and we are excited to continue building partnerships across Warwickshire to create opportunities for our learners," said Gareth Ivett, Principal, Creating Tomorrow College.

Employment route

According to Creating Tomorrow College, its supported employment programme has so far produced a 100 per cent employment outcome among learners who have completed it. That figure sets a benchmark for the Rugby campus as it begins admitting students and extends the employer-led model to another location.

At Iron Mountain's existing sites, learners have been exposed to day-to-day operational work while receiving support tailored to their needs. Managers and supervisors involved in the programme have also adjusted communication methods, mentoring practices and task design, changes that have shaped the wider workplace culture.

The partnership suggests a model in which employers do more than offer short placements at the end of a course. Instead, the workplace becomes part of the education setting, with students learning how work functions through regular contact with staff, processes and routines.

That structure may appeal to other employers looking to widen access to work for people with learning differences while addressing labour and skills needs in their own operations. In Rugby, the college will now test whether the same model can be repeated successfully at a larger scale across another live site.

The programme's core premise is that familiarity with working life can matter as much as formal teaching for learners who often face barriers to entry. At Rugby, students will be taught in a setting where they can also observe and take part in the patterns of everyday employment.