One of Britain’s most senior female business leaders Ruby McGregor Smith highlights the importance of mentoring and support for women in the workplace in last night’s episode of BBC documentary Women at the Top.

Hilary Devey’s Women at the Top is a two part primetime series for BBC Two investigating why there are still relatively few women in senior positions in British business.

As chief executive of Mitie, Ruby is one of just 10 women heading up FTSE 250 companies. The programme shows Ruby addressing an audience of young, primary school-age girls and their mothers from Thomas Buxton and Malorees primary schools in London at their Mosaic graduation ceremony, in which they celebrate completing the ‘Mosaic Futures’ mentoring programme designed to inspire the children and build their confidence.

Jonathan Freeman, Director of Mosaic, said: “Mentoring has a powerful and positive effect on aspirations, confidence and ambition, so Ruby is absolutely right to highlight the important role it can play to boost the number of women that succeed in business.”

“Mosaic’s work with primary school girls shows the phenomenal impact of female role models and mentors on young girls in particular, which is why we were delighted that Ruby was a guest of honour at the graduation ceremony to be shown in tonight’s Women at the Top programme.”

“Female role models from business can play a crucial role to help us support and inspire the next generation of female business leaders and we hope that our long-term work in schools will help to redress the balance at the highest levels of business and create more inspiring business women of the future”.

Find out more about our mentoring programmes for young people in primary schools

To watch Women at the Top on iPlayer, visit the BBC website (the link will be live for a week and the Mosaic clip begins at 17 minutes into the programme)