M&S and Prince’s Trust find work for 48 unemployed young people

ALMOST 50 youngsters from across the West Midlands have been found work after receiving help from Marks & Spencer and youth charity The Prince’s Trust.

In July, the 48 young people 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.  

The 48 participants who passed each element of the programme have now been offered jobs with the retailer.

M&S has now kicked off its September programme by offering an additional 48 Make Your Mark places within the region. Throughout September, the young people will participate in the Make Your Mark scheme at stores in Birmingham, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

The initiative has been designed to tackle unemployment in the 16 – 24 year old bracket. In the West Midlands figures show there are 88,700 (23%) young people currently unemployed.

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.

Make Your Mark 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. The new scheme aims to take this to the next level with a commitment to support even more young people across the UK.

Katherine Ottawell, manager of the M&S store in High Street, Birmingham, 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. 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.”