Marks & Spencer (M&S) rolled out Get Into Retail: Marks & Start in Malta – a programme designed to help young and unemployed people, including those with disabilities and health conditions, lone parents and those tackling homelessness, to gain vital employability skills.

Marks & Spencer’s chief executive Marc Bolland hosted a celebration event at its flagship store in Valletta, where he met four youths taking part in the programme.

They were joined by Andrew Calascione, managing director of M&S’s franchise partner Supermarkets 1960, Alan Kennedy, chief executive at Prince’s Trust International, together with Winston Zahra, chief executive at the President’s Trust Malta, and Philip Rizzo, chief executive at the Employment and Training Corporation, who are running the programme in partnership with M&S.

The event was held at the retailer’s recently refurbished M&S Café, where guests heard from youngsters and their M&S buddies and coaches about the skills and confidence they had learnt on the course. They were then presented with certificates by Mr Bolland, following which Mr Calascione announced that the four candidates had been offered jobs with M&S in Malta.

The group then attended the Prince’s Trust International launch reception at the Grandmaster’s Palace in Valletta as guests of President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, in the presence of Prince Charles.

Since M&S launched Marks & Start in the UK in 2004, the scheme has helped over 13,000 individuals gain skills and confidence to find work in the retail sector. Participants undertake employability skills training and on-the-job experience.

M&S also operates the scheme internationally, including the introduction of Marks & Start with some of its clothing suppliers in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka in 2007, and was extended across its international stores in France, Greece and Poland.

Malta is M&S’s first international franchise market to be running its employability scheme.