Marks & Spencer is set to launch a new training scheme that could help 1,000 young people into work. The nationwide programme, called “Not Just Any Career”, will offer 1,000 traineeships to 18 to 24-year-olds over the next 18 months in a bid to build confidence, management skills and long-term careers.
The programme, which opens for applications on July 27, will see successful applicants conduct six months of retail management training, confidence-building support and hands-on experience in M&S stores. “Retail is one of the few careers where you can start young, learn fast, lead teams early and build an incredible future through hard work and ambition,” M&S retail director Thinus Keeve, told the Times.
“This programme is about opening doors for the next generation and giving talented young people the chance to thrive.”
It comes after the former chief executive of Marks & Spencer Marc Bolland was brought in by the government to help get more young people into work after a review warned of a “lost generation”.
Mr Bolland was asked to bring business leaders together to help create more opportunities for young people.
The review, written by former minister Alan Milburn, found that one in six young people could be out of work, education or training within five years without urgent action.
In his review, Milburn warned: “The problem is that for too many young people, opportunities are not growing, they’re shrinking.”
Milburn, a former health secretary in Tony Blair’s Labour government said: “Six in ten young people who are Neet today have never had a job. Behind every Neet (not in education, employment or training) statistic is a young person who simply hasn’t been given a chance and keeps finding the door to opportunity closed.”
He added: “M&S is trying to change that. I welcome its efforts to provide a new career ladder for 1,000 young people. This is the type of employer leadership my review calls for. Young people have not given up on work — we must not give up on them.”
M&S’s chief executive, Stuart Machin, began his retail career as a teenager pushing trolleys in a local Sainsbury’s before climbing the corporate ladder.
In a recent blog post, he wrote: “A Saturday job can change a young person’s life. I know, because it transformed mine. But when I think about the challenges facing young people today, I worry that many won’t have the same opportunity.
“That doesn’t need to be the case. We can do so much more to provide the opportunities, experiences and skills to unlock their confidence and get them into good jobs.”