- UK outsourcing company MITIE receives an Innovation award for improving the employability skills of people who face barriers back to work
- First European Employee Volunteering Awards held in the UK
- 98 of the 200 who have taken part in the programme have been offered permanent jobs at MITIE and other employers
- Plans to extend the scheme following its success in London and Glasgow
On 17 March, winners of the first European Employee Volunteering Awards 2011, were announced at an exclusive reception held at The Business Design Centre. The awards are organised by Business in the Community and co-funded by the European Commission and are closely aligned to the European Year of Volunteering 2011.
MITIE Group PLC was crowned winner in the Innovation category for The Real Apprentice Programme. Its twelve-week operational programme works to break down barriers and help the long-term unemployed and people with a physical or mental disability back into the world of work.
The programme comprises five main parts, which range from face to face interviews to managing a budget and working beside personnel from MITIE. It targets people who are unemployed and are facing barriers to work because of their disabilities, or for being homeless or single parents on benefits. The programme has achieved excellent results, with 197 people taking part, 134 completing and 98 receiving permanent job offers.
Ruby McGregor-Smith, Chief Executive MITIE Group PLC commented:
“We are very proud of this ground-breaking programme, which helps people to find employment and really has changed the futures of the people who take part. Not only is there a social and moral case for working together to make a difference to peoples’ lives, but there’s also a solid business case. The Real Apprentice is about people helping people, and we encourage all individuals and organisations to get involved.”
The European Employee Volunteering Awards process has drawn company submission from 22 countries which demonstrate how effective collaboration, particularly between civil society organisation and private enterprise, can be when all sides are committed to partnership.
Employment continues to be a central concern for the European Union, and in particular, the importance of addressing barriers to employment, experienced particularly in more disadvantaged communities and by disadvantaged groups.
Around 100 million Europeans engage in some form of voluntary activity – if they were a country they would be the biggest Member State of the EU. The time is right to celebrate the wonderful contributions that these millions of volunteers make every day.
-ENDS-
Notes for editors
What is MITIE?
We’re the strategic outsourcing company. What does that mean in practice? We manage facilities, properties and assets for our clients across the UK and beyond.
We work with our clients in three ways; some take full advantage of our whole range of expertise, others may only need one aspect of what we do:
Strategy and consultancy
+ Facilities and project management
+ Service delivery
Our strategic input can add value at the highest level by helping clients to manage their assets, while our practical management expertise can save customers money and reduce their carbon emissions. We work with a vast number of clients in every industry across both the public and private sectors and deliver the broadest range of services that can be found in one place: from integrated facilities management to engineering maintenance to lifecycle energy management and much more.
There’s a lot more to MITIE than you probably think. We’re a big company with big ambitions – a leading FTSE 250 support services business, with more than 56,000 people, revenues in excess of £1.7bn, and a reputation for being the best.
Visit us at www.mitie.com
European Employee Volunteering Awards
1. Awards were given for the following 5 categories
a. Large Company, Small Company, Innovation, Newcomer and Public Authorities
2. Winners
a. Large Company: Koç Holding A.Ş. (Turkey)
b. Small Company: NORSYS (France)
c. Innovation: MITIE Group (United Kingdom)
d. Newcomer: Abbott (Ireland)
e. Public Authorities: Magistrate of the City of Wiesbaden, Office for Social Affairs (Germany)
3. Over 250 entries from 21 countries across Europe were received. The European Employee Volunteering Awards were co-funded by the European Commission and kindly supported by Alliance Boots, Hewlett Packard and Tata Consultancy Services.
Business in the Community stands for responsible business.
We are a business-led charity with a growing membership of 850 companies, from large multinational household names to small local businesses and public sector organisations.
We advise, support and challenge our members to create a sustainable future for people and the planet and to improve business performance.
Our members work with us to define what responsibility looks like in the workplace, marketplace, community and the environment - and we share what we learn about driving performance through responsible business practice.
For more information about the European Employee Volunteering Awards please visit: http://www.bitc.org.uk/global/european_volunteering_awards/index.html
For more information about removing barriers to work please visit: http://www.bitc.org.uk/community/employability/work_inclusion.html
For more information about setting up employee volunteering programmes please visit: http://www.bitc.org.uk/community/employee_volunteering/
For more information about setting up employee volunteering programmes internationally please visit: http://engagetoolkit.bitc.org.uk/
For more information about Give & Gain Day 24 June 2011 please visit: http://www.bitc.org.uk/community/employee_volunteering/give_gain_day/give_gain_day _1.html