The IEP Welcomes a New Fellow

We’re delighted to share that our CEO, Natasha Babar-Evans, has recently been awarded Fellowship of The Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP).

An international membership body for employability professionals, the IEP is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to raising standards and championing excellence across the employability sector.

The Fellowship programme celebrates individuals who have made a significant contribution to the profession, bringing together influential leaders committed to advancing employability practice and driving global social change.

Joining Better Connect Board Members Dr Annie Irvine and Susanne Eusman, Natasha becomes part of a vibrant and collaborative network of Fellows helping to shape the future of the profession.

Below, Natasha shares her reflections on receiving Fellowship, marking four years at Better Connect, and the journey that led here.

I’m absolutely delighted to have been awarded Fellowship status with the Institute of Employability Professionals.

The timing feels particularly special as it’s almost exactly four years since I joined Better Connect on the 16th of May 2022! During that time, Better Connect has supported more than 10,000 people across Yorkshire into employment, education, training or job search, and distributed over £12 million into the VCSE sector to deliver place-based, person-centred support. Along the way, we’ve also won two Professional Quality Standards Awards in 2024 for our collaboration and contribution to skills and further education.

What I love most about Better Connect is that we don’t just deliver programmes, we bring people, organisations and ideas together to make things happen. Through strategic partnerships, funder engagement and collaboration across the VCSE sector, we help shape employability and skills programmes that create real opportunities for people and communities. It’s values-led, ambitious, collaborative work which suits me perfectly.

Before joining Better Connect, my career took a slightly unusual route through law, banking and entrepreneurship. I’ve been a lawyer, a business owner and Regional Entrepreneur Director for NatWest across the North, leading accelerator programmes in Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle and supporting hundreds of entrepreneurs to grow their businesses through coaching, mentoring and access to funding.

Looking back, there’s a common thread throughout all of it: helping people and organisations thrive. Whether that’s supporting someone into work, helping a business grow, or building partnerships that create wider impact, that’s always been the bit that motivates me most.

Alongside my day job, I’m also involved in several regional boards and partnerships focused on inclusive growth, employability and communities across Yorkshire, because apparently, I’m not very good at sitting still!

Outside of work, sport is a huge part of my life. I coach girls’ football, still play football myself when the knees allow it, and spend a large proportion of my time enthusiastically ferrying my children to various sporting and brass band activities across Yorkshire.

I’m incredibly grateful to everyone I’ve worked with over the years, colleagues, partners, friends and mentors, and I am proud to be part of a sector full of people who genuinely care about creating better opportunities for others. This Fellowship feels like recognition not just of my own journey, but of the amazing people and partnerships I’ve had the privilege of working alongside.

For more on the IEP’s work, click here, and to read more about some our sector advocacy, click here.