We have just completed another successful Reach Up employability programme despite the many challenges of running the programme whilst we are in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Delivered by Adviza in partnership with UK Youth and Coca-Cola European Partnership (CCEP), the programme is for 16-25 year olds who are not in education, employment and training (NEET). We were over subscribed for places and anyone that did not get on the programme has been offered some one to one support.

Despite the challenges, Adviza made the decision to still do a face to face programme based in Bracknell rather than doing it all virtually. We ensured all measures were put in place for the young people to be socially distanced and we all made sure we protected each other by wearing masks and washing hands.

It was a very fun and useful experience. It helped me to build more confidence.
Summer, 16

The programme was made up of eight days where we worked through areas such as resilience, mindset, confidence, skills, getting the job and much more. The young people had the chance to speak virtually with CCEP volunteers around networking and sales. We managed to do this via panel discussions as well as breakout rooms. There was also a chance for every young person to have an interview with two volunteers via zoom; with this being the way forward for a lot of companies it gave them great experience, with feedback to assist them in the future.

As far as feedback goes I don't have anything negative to say, I found both you and your plethora of "Glamorous Assistants" to be approachable and kind, you also all done a great job at helping everyone learn new skills, and develop existing ones. You all managed to provide answers for most (if not all) questions asked which is another good thing.
Jordan, 22

The 12 young people that were on the project were given Coca-Cola products to help them raise money for a charity of their choice. Usually they would be able to set up a café and sell the products but with COVID-19 we were not able to do this. However, these young people were not going to be beaten by the fact they could not have an actual space to sell. Together as a group they assigned different roles to each other such as stock control, marketing, project management. They worked hard to advertise the drinks virtually as well as set up a raffle.

In total they made £250.04 which will be matched by CCEP to donate to their chosen charities Alzheimers UK and Make a Wish. 

At the end of the programme the young people said they wished they could continue. 

Thank you so much to all of you and everyone over at Coca-Cola for looking after us for the 2 weeks! I really appreciated them volunteering their time to all of us?! Thank you for everything you taught me and I can't wait to use everything to better myself! Fun, interactive and I learnt very much. Had so much fun & WE ALL WANT TO COME BACK AGAIN! Thank you x 
Georgina, 23

Find out more about the Reach Up programme