Talent Week is a joint venture between Business in the Community, independent education foundation Edge and BCSC, designed to help raise young people’s aspirations and increase their awareness of the breadth of opportunities available in the world of work.

So far 13 centres have agreed to open their doors to young people aged 13-21 to showcase their talents in front of potential employers. The 13 are a cross-section of the industry ranging from the largest regional malls to some of the smallest community centres and include the Airedale centre in Keighley, Meadowhall in Sheffield, Liverpool One, The Galleries & Grand Arcade in Wigan, Golden Square in Warrington, Highcross in Leicester, Touchwood in Solihull, the Eastgate Centre in Basildon, The Meadows in Chelmsford, Brent Cross, Swan Walk in Horsham, the St Nicholas Centre in Sutton and Festival Place in Basingstoke.

And Leesa Ingham, BCSC project director for Talent Week, says it’s not too late to sign up. “This is an off-the-shelf initiative that centres can roll out,” she says.

Originally, the scheme was aimed at centres that already had a School Engagement Programme, but this proved a barrier to entry because of the cost implications. Now it has been opened up to all centres, and Business in the Community is providing a template of materials that centres can download to run their own programme at virtually no cost.

A key target for the scheme are the so-called NEETs (not in education, employment or training) who are estimated to make up around 10 per cent of all 16-to 18-year-olds. And with unemployment expected to continue rising there is a risk of this proportion increasing.

Shopping centre managers will be well aware that this group already tend to congregate in shopping centres, which are often the hub of a local community. During Talent Week itself, shopping centres will stage a series of events to catch their attention, showcasing areas such as creative media, health and beauty, science, retail, music, sport and engineering.

“It’s a confidence-building exercise,” says Ingham. “We’re saying to young people: ‘We know you have talent,’ and asking :’What are your skills and interests? How can we relate that to a possible career path?’”

The second component will be to introduce the young people to a number of partners and businesses which will be there to offer advice on gaining the right qualifications and the best courses on offer.

“We are encouraging local colleges and universities to have an on-site presence and local companies are putting people forward to act as mentors and advisors,” says Ingham.

Organisations taking part include the National Skills Academy for Retail, the National Enterprise Service, Ignite, Streets United and the Army.

Hammerson is hosting Talent Week in its Brent Cross and Highcross centres. Tom Nathan, general manager at both schemes, explains: “We ran one of the pilot projects in October last year, and following its success have committed to having Talent Week in both Brent Cross, London and Highcross, Leicester in October.

“We believe it provides a unique opportunity to work with our local authority to help raise aspirations of young people in our communities and complements many of our community engagement projects.”

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---