M&S is celebrating 20 years of Marks & Start – its employability programme in partnership with The Kings Trust – by committing to train and support almost 2,000 hard to reach young people.
Over half a million young people in the UK are unemployed but eager to work, yet new insight from M&S revealed that two thirds of young people still face barriers to employment.
Marks & Start aims to help those who face barriers to employment gain their first crucial step on the career ladder. Over the past two decades, the scheme has supported over 30,000 people get into employment, including 12,000 young people facing barriers to work through M&S’ partnership with The King’s Trust.
Mental health is one of the biggest barriers for young people getting into work with one in three saying it’s a challenge.
Last year, M&S established its biggest ever charity partnership with YoungMinds, which after its first year raised over £2.6mn to support young people, with a target to raise £5mn within three years.
With 30% of young people signalling that employment, and a sense of stability, has a positive impact on their mental health, M&S wants to go one step further to break down employment barriers and get more young people – particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds – into a career in retail.
Marks and Spencer CEO Stuart Machin is championing collaboration as the key to breaking down some of the barriers faced by those furthest from employment and helping them take that first step on the career ladder.
He said: “As a young boy of 16 years old, I started my career in retail, working part time on weekends and in the evening doing trolleys, working on the checkout serving customers and replenishing shelves. Work gave me purpose as well as pocket money.
“As one of the UK’s biggest retail employers, it’s our responsibility to help young people into work – especially those furthest from employment who might need extra support. But we can’t do it alone; that’s why we partner with The King’s Trust and Young Minds, brilliant organisations that really understand the help young people need.
“The success of Marks and Start over twenty years shows the difference that partnership can make – together with The King’s Trust we’ve helped 12,000 young people into work and in doing so, changed thousands of lives. Too many young people in the UK face barriers to getting a job, but if we work together, we can change that.”
Learn more about M&S in an exclusive company profile in the first UK 360° report.
The report offers a briefing on the UK market as a whole, how shoppers buy and want to buy, the retailers, brands and marketplaces that are succeeding in this market, and the services that the most successful provide to their customers.
Argos, Asos, Currys, John Lewis, Schuh, Screwfix and Tesco are also profiled.
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