By Alec Hogg
Every year I return from Davos with many new ideas, all of which look like winners. Often, our team spends hours debating opportunities that have done so well elsewhere. This week the usual half dozen ideas will be thrown into the pot. One of which, I really hope our team likes.
In Davos, Marc Bolland who runs UK retailer Marks & Spencer shared insights into his company’s innovative one-month internship programme. It has been expanded to 27 major suppliers and is being rolled out to almost a thousand smaller businesses with M&S relationships. The approach is designed to provide opportunities to young people struggling to break into the job market.
The month’s internship gives them a chance to show off their talent – and even if it isn’t in retailing, they get a certificate proving they’ve tried. That helps overcome deep-seated and wildly incorrect managerial prejudice who believe young Europeans don’t want to work. Adecco research shows unemployed youth send out their CVs an average of 11 times a month.
BizNews is a small company with a tight team. But even we can afford to open our doors to provide vocational training by bringing in an intern a month at a time. Makes sense to me. How about you?
Yesterday’s top stories
Cees Bruggemans: Dire warnings from oil companies on the future of the oil price
The real reason Muslims object to depictions of the Prophet
Meet Alexis Tsipras, the man behind the ultra-left party that just won the election in Greece
Former N. Zealand PM Helen Clark’s impassioned stance against inequality and exclusion
The U.S. economy is strong, but is it strong enough to power the world?
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