News

18th July 2006 - Marks & Start awarded for Excellence

Marks & Spencer has won the prestigious Business in the Community (BitC) 'Award for Excellence' for their flagship community programme 'Marks & Start'. The award was announced by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales at the ceremony hosted by BitC on 12th July.

The Marks & Start programme helps 2,500 people each year, many of whom face real barriers to getting a job by providing training and two or four week work experience placements. People participating in the programme include disabled people, homeless, young unemployed, lone parents returning to work, school children and students who are the first in their family to aim for higher education.

DisabledGo works in partnership with Marks & Spencer to deliver the Marks & Start programme to disabled people. The focus of the programme is to offer the valuable opportunity of work experience to disabled people. Over the next year, DisabledGo will be running a further 150 work placements at Marks & Spencer stores across the UK and Ireland.

E-J Walker, Community Programme Manager, Marks & Spencer, said: "The success of the programme is very much down to the commitment of the partner organisations and the Marks & Spencer store teams who support the participants through their placements. The award is a tremendous achievement for everyone."

Further information can be obtained by contacting Gina Brown, Project Manager on 0845-2704627.