Commercial Foundation celebrates success of No Limits Programme

Published by

Nicky Godding

Commercial Foundation’s first No Limits programme of the year has been a resounding success, as 80% of the young people who attended had secured either employment or further education by the time they completed the eight-week programme.

According to the Foundation’s founder, Simone Hindmarch, several factors contributed to this record figure, including significant, recent investment in new premises, equipment, and team by Commercial Group. The programme content was also restructured.

“Since our inception in 2015, our mission has always been to change the lives of young people who have struggled with barriers to employment,” explains Simone. “Many of them come from troubled backgrounds, and most find social or professional situations challenging. With our new, practical based format and our expert job coaches, we are able to guide young people with different levels of learning difficulties.

“The target we originally set ourselves was to support 30 young people a year. Now, with the recent improvements, we have been able to reduce the course time to eight weeks, increase the number of interns from six to 12, and help those young people to secure positions even before they complete the programme, which is extraordinary.

“Programme One had a vibrant, upbeat mix of characters who were an absolute pleasure to oversee for eight weeks,” continues Simone. “And their attitude and dedication to the programme means we now have five young people with confirmed jobs, and we are waiting to hear about two more. Zak is going to work with Amey Construction, Brandon starts at Dominoes, Michael will be working at Burger King, Ellie is now employed in a charity shop, and Luke will be working at the YMCA Charity Shop.

“Our second intake of young people has increased to 12, which is our largest-ever intake,” she concludes. “We’re looking forward to guiding them through the programme and seeing how they get on.”

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.