Youth-friendly organisations Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) and Remit Training have joined forces with a new form of work experience placement.
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), one of the world’s leading consumer goods companies, is using a new form of work experience placement to support its recruitment activities in Great Britain.
Young workers have been hit the hardest by rising unemployment during the Covid pandemic, with those under the age of 25 accounting for more than 50% of job losses in the last year, figures from the ONS reveal.
Despite the Government’s efforts to protect jobs with the extended Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), employment for this group is falling even as the number of people in work begins to rise for every other age group, largely due to younger adults bearing the brunt of job cuts in sectors such as hospitality and retail.
To halt this worrying trend, and create a new pipeline of young talent one of the world’s most iconic brands is using Traineeships, which include a new work experience model, to support its recruitment activities.
CCEP has joined forces with Remit Training to offer prospective new recruits a three week work placement as it seeks to add extra fizz to its recruitment activity.
Sharon Blyfield, GB Talent and Early Careers Lead, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, explains how this work experience prepares both candidate and employer for a role in the food manufacturing industry.
“The 19-24 age group is probably ideal for the individuals we need, but bringing young adults into the Food Manufacturing environment can be difficult, not just from a health and safety perspective but also mentality and attitude,” says Sharon. “As the world of work is still relatively new to many of them, we find this age group also needs extra support.”
“What a traineeship offers is a good period of work experience that allows us to look at an individual and see whether they are suited to role in the industry but importantly, it offers the candidate a chance to decide whether they see themselves working in this environment.”
“We simply don’t have that opportunity with a direct hire which is why a traineeship, which offers a quality work placement is a great route for bringing a young adult into the business.”
For work placements, three weeks offers optimum benefits
With the support of Remit Training, CCEP offers three weeks of work placement with trainees working five hours a day, five days a week. The extended work placement offers flexibility to CCEP to find the right role and right progression route for each trainee.
“Three weeks is a good amount of time to be in the workplace, it offers a proper induction into a job role for an individual and a real chance to immerse themselves in the environment, usually it’s just a snapshot in time,” says Sharon.
“We had designed the work experience around an operative role, but found at least one of the trainees was better suited to an administrative, office-based role so we were able to adapt and offer this type of placement instead”.
Work placement benefits to employers and organisations
It isn’t just the young people on work placement that benefit from this work experience. Managers and colleagues also learn from a young person in the workplace.
“Working with a young person on work experience makes our managers and colleagues more mindful of how they perceive a young person in the workplace. They might not have all the skills and knowledge when they first join us so it forces colleagues to adapt and adopt a different approach.”
Traineeships are considered by CCEP to be a safe route to bring individuals into the Food Manufacturing sector and once in can offer a young person progression on to a Kick-Start placement, an apprenticeship or into another full time role.
They also offer businesses like CCEP an opportunity to prepare young people for a range of roles, across the organisation.
“If it’s planned well, the work experience can definitely be used within a number of roles. For example, when lockdown restrictions ease, I could see someone doing a customer service qualification and then on work experience buddying up with a sales person on the road.”
Weekly mentoring for work placement learners with feedback and potential Kickstart placements
During work placement all learners are supported by a Remit Training Placement Coach and have weekly reviews with their mentors. At the end of the placement all learners will have a guaranteed interview and feedback session and can be considered for a place on the Kickstart Scheme with CCEP.
Using traineeships to support successful recruitment
In 2019, The Food and Drink Manufacturing sector has a turnover of more than £104bn, accounting for more than 20% of all UK Manufacturing
Mark Compton, Head of Partnerships at Remit Training said, “This is just one of the many examples of large employers using traineeships to support a successful recruitment programme. All of the elements included in our Traineeship model mean employers hire the right person for their organisation rather than just the job.”
To find out how Traineeships could support your current or future recruitment plans visit https://remit.co.uk/traineeships/information-for-employers/
