July 2015
UCB helps to raise local employability for new city shopping centre
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UCB is part of an educational collective equipping unemployed local people with the skills for jobs in the Work Grand Central Excellence Programme.
Working in partnership with Birmingham Metropolitan College and Solihull College, a bid was secured with the Birmingham Growth Alliance Partnership (BGAP) to recruit 1,500 local people for retail and hospitality vacancies for Grand Central, Birmingham’s newest shopping centre, which boasts 60 restaurants, cafes and shops.
The three colleges provided a tailored pre-employment training course in areas such as hospitality, food hygiene, customer service, retail knowledge and personal and social development. Candidates were also schooled in interview techniques to give them the best possible chance of securing a job.
UCB lecturers and staff contributed to providing a comprehensive programme, with Hospitality lecturer Andrew Bisconti and the hired@UCB team delivering Level 1 Hospitality Training and Employability Skills to the group.
"We are delighted to be part of this ground-breaking collaboration to help train and support Birmingham people into employment in the unique development at Grand Central."
The full- time course was run over a two week period with candidates completing Level 1 qualifications and benefiting from additional learning support to help with interview skills as well as assertiveness coaching.