Member Article

M&S and The Prince’s Trust helps Leeds youngsters beat unemployment

An innovative employment scheme devised by Marks & Spencer (M&S) and youth charity The Prince’s Trust has helped 20 Leeds youngsters secure new jobs.

In July, they took part in a nationwide M&S and Prince’s Trust youth employability scheme, Make Your Mark, which offers unemployed young people - aged between 16 and 24 – training and mentoring to help find a job.

All 20 participants who passed each element of the programme have now been offered jobs at M&S.

M&S has now kicked off its September programme by offering an additional 28 Make Your Mark places within Leeds.

During September, 28 young people from Leeds will begin the Make Your Mark programme at M&S Leeds, M&S Leeds White Rose and M&S Pudsey.

Youth unemployment has recently reached record levels, with over one in five of 16 - 24 year olds in the labour force struggling to find jobs.

In Leeds - one of 42 areas across the UK to run the September programme of Make Your Mark - figures shows that there are currently 18,500 young people unemployed in Leeds.

Phil Schulze, store manager at M&S Leeds, said: “We are so pleased to have been able to support these local young people and to subsequently have them as part of our team at M&S Leeds.

“There are hundreds of thousands of young people across the UK struggling to find work and we’re extremely proud to be helping to support some of those through the Make Your Mark programme.

“We hope to make a real and lasting impact on the lives of the young people coming through the programme at M&S Leeds.”

Make Your Mark is an on-the-job training and mentoring programme designed to address the skills and experience gap that prevents young people from finding work.

The initiative is inspired by Marks & Start, M&S’ successful employability scheme for people who face barriers to employment.

Since 2004 it has enabled over 1,100 young people to complete placements with M&S or another employer within three months of participating in the scheme.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Lane .