Carr’s began participating in Toonies for Tummies in 2014 as part of United Biscuits initiative to help local communities. We know that we must participate in developing our community both within our business, and the wider world in which we operate. Young people are the employees of the future and as such we support schools nationwide in a variety of ways, a cause that is close to our heart.
In the United Kingdom, UB runs a Community Program that has been in place since 2009. We are proud of the volunteer activities of our employees, particularly the communities around our sites. We have set ourselves a wide ranging set of goals, from supporting fund raising and providing additional time off for community activities, to supporting students and schools. We are also extending the development opportunities to employees through improvement to their health and well-being.
Sponsoring children’s sports teams or sporting events is one way in which our facilities help their local areas. Along with raising money, our employees support their local communities in a more practical way. Employees redecorated classrooms at a local school by doing ‘Ground Force’ style makeovers to create a vegetable garden, and renovated the outside of a local nature studies organization.
Many of our facilities are involved with their local schools and provide valuable support. For example, one location supports the annual ‘Skills for Management’ conference at their local secondary school, giving students an insight into the day to day tasks of managers. The location also supports the school’s technology students by inviting them into the factory to learn how products are created and marketed.
Another factory has launched an innovative work inspiration program with their local school, giving 14-16 year olds the chance to follow a structured program over the course of a week. This entails career discussion sessions and the opportunity to spend time in different departments. Our Manchester factory also has very close ties with its local school, supporting it through work experience placements and inviting students to visit the factory. They even sponsor an annual awards ceremony, where one student wins the McVitie’s Student of the Year Award.
In the same way that we support schools, United Biscuits also recognizes the value of establishing relationships with students in focusing further education. We have strong relationships with a number of universities, where we are able to offer career advice and pilot recruitment tools.
Our Indian factory has also successfully established links with several local schools by offering summer internships to students. In addition, we run a very successful graduate summer placement scheme which allows university students to consider their career options.
