Sport and the wider city of Leeds are beginning to collaborate to help young people into work - Jamie Jones-Buchanan

What if one of the most important outcomes created at AMT Headingley had nothing to do with the final score? I was recently invited by the fantastic Katie White OBE MP to visit the Department for Work and Pensions in Westminster, alongside Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s Head of Businesses and Partnerships, Dan Busfield.

This followed the Skills Summit hosted at AMT Headingley on July 10, the same week as Leeds City Council’s Inclusive Growth event at Elland Road. Government, education, employers and young people came together to explore a collective response to the Neet crisis: young people not in education, employment or training.

Meeting Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Pat McFadden, gave us the opportunity to explain Leeds Rhinos’ role as a trusted convenor, bringing national businesses such as Checkatrade together with technical-skills institutions such as Leeds College of Building. Pat was interested in these emerging connections. We do not have every answer, but bringing people together creates possibilities that no organisation could create alone.

This builds on Leeds City Council’s ambition for a city where prosperity reaches every community. Leeds United Foundation is supporting that wider ambition and working with the DWP too. Sport and the wider city are beginning to collaborate around a shared question: what part can each of us play in helping young people into work?

That philosophy also sits at the heart of the Leeds Learning Alliance, of which I am a proud ambassador. Its members include schools, Leeds City College, Leeds Beckett University, CATCH, Lighthouse Futures Trust and Leeds Rhinos Foundation, connecting education, charities and third-sector organisations around a shared ambition, helping learners progress into work.

We learned that funding exists, but understanding and accessing it can be another barrier.

Alongside this is the Prime Minister's call for parity between the hard hat and the graduation cap: technical skills should be recognised as equally credible and valuable routes into work.

In Leeds alone, nearly 1,000 16 and 17-year-olds are currently known to be out of education, employment or training. Behind every one of those numbers is a young person whose potential we cannot afford to waste.

For a philanthropic city like Leeds, generosity need not end with a donation. It might mean mentoring, equipment, work experience or an apprenticeship. Employers creating those opportunities deserve recognition too.

I grew up in Bramley, the Big Apple, shaped by the people and places around me. Priesthorpe gave me a start, Stanningley Rugby League Club gave me the steps, and Leeds Rhinos gave me the stage to discover what I could do, test myself and realise the potential other people could see in me.

I was fortunate to spend 20 years playing for my hometown club, surrounded by teammates, coaches and supporters who taught me that anything worthwhile is often built together.

There’s little that can’t be achieved or overcome when you’re committed to doing it together.

That lesson has never left me. Opportunity changed my life, and there’s a joyous obligation to pay that forward.

I see that differently now as a dad, watching my own son begin an apprenticeship. His road will be his own, but the principle is unchanged: young people need someone to notice them, believe in them, open a door and help them belong because belonging gives people the chance to thrive.

Jamie Jones-Buchanan MBE is CEO and a former player for the Leeds Rhinos.