Over 1,000 young people to participate in ‘Skills for Work Week’ 2016
Leading names in Ireland's grocery industry are participating in Skills for Work Week; 29 February – 4 March, 2016
Print29 February 2016
Over 1,000 young people will have the opportunity to gain the skills they need to get back to work when they visit 30 participating companies in 43 locations during Ireland’s ‘Skills for Work Week’ from Monday 29 February to Friday 4 March 2016. This year marks the largest number of companies that are participating since the programme began in 2013.
This is the third year of the initiative and will involve retail and grocery companies and food service providers throughout Ireland providing free pre-employment skills for young people under 24 years. According to the Department of Social Protection, the number of young people aged between 18 and 25 on the Live Register in January 2016 was 39,806 (12.4%). This figure is down from 13.7% in January 2015.
The project is part of Feeding Ireland’s Future, an initiative by the Irish food and grocery industry, launched by Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton, TD.
Focus on pre-employment skills
Skills for Work Week 2016 will provide a range of initiatives including free on-site skills workshops and site visits for young people at locations across Ireland. The focus will be on developing pre-employment skills and will include interview preparation skills, interview tips, CV writing skills, food hygiene and safety training, and job searching advice. Participants will also receive behind the scenes tours of farms, factories, depots, stores and offices of some of Ireland’s leading food and grocery companies.
Those taking part in activities at Kelloggs in North Dublin will look at ‘The Journey of Cornflakes’, learning about how one of Ireland’s favourite breakfast cereals is made, while over at Kerry Foods in Naas, Co. Kildare, participants will get an insight into R&D and take part in sausage testing. Musgrave Group will share insights into the operations of Ireland’s leading grocery retailer, with site tours and ‘A Day in the Life’ workshops, and Unilever will give participants hand-on cookery experience in its testing kitchens using leading Unilever brands.
Leading names
Companies signed up for Feeding Ireland’s Future 2016 include some of Ireland’s leading names in the grocery industry; BWG Foods, Coca Cola Hellenic, Danone, Heineken Ireland, Irish Distillers, Keelings, Kellogg’s, Mondelez, Musgrave Group, Nestlé, Topaz Energy and Unilever are all involved.
New to the Skills for Work Week 2016 programme is a partnership with Youthreach, a Department of Education and Skills official education, training and work experience programme for early school leavers aged between 15 and 20 years old. 19 Youthreach centres across Ireland will take part in the initiative, whereby company representatives will host seminars with groups of 30 young people in each Youthreach centre, giving advice and interactive learning sessions about CV skills, interview techniques, skills training and personal development to the young students.
The Skills for Work initiative, is being promoted by ECR Ireland, with the support of its members, in partnership with the Department of Social Protection through its Intreo service.
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