An event, co-hosted by Midcounties Co-op and Birmingham-based social enterprise, Miss Macaroon, saw businesses and organisations in the Walsall area pledge practical steps towards reducing youth unemployment in the region.
The commitments, which focus on addressing barriers to employment and generating work experience opportunities for local young people, were made as part of the Fairer Futures Employer Roundtable on 28 of July.
Run in partnership with West Midlands Combined Authority and Walsall Council, the event explored how youth unemployment and health-related economic inactivity in the area should be tackled.
Participants included local businesses and organisations such as Walsall College, Vine Trust Group, Atkins Realis, Severn Trent, Walsall FC Foundation, and Walsall Housing Group. And three graduates from Fairer Futures – the initiative run by Midcounties and Miss Macaroon to help support young people in the area into work – shared their lived experiences with the group. Since launching in May 2023, more than 65 young people have been supported by the initiative.
The roundtable discussed how taster days, work experience placements, mentorship, flexible start expectations, and regular check-ins can work towards inclusive recruitment and improved retention levels for employers.
Related: Midcounties supports 50 people through its employment initiatives
Azhar, customer service assistant at Midcounties and Fairer Futures graduate, said: “Support at work helped me grow. Knowing that I had time and space to speak at work if I was stressed out helped me to learn the job and become more confident.”
Phil Ponsonby, CEO at Midcounties, pledged to continue offering employment pathways for Fairer Futures graduates as well as supporting the next phase of the programme through employer engagement, mentoring, and in-store paid work opportunities.
Based in Midcounties’ Walsall town centre store, Fairer Futures is an innovative programme that offers personalised support, counselling, 1-2-1 mentoring, training and work experience to young people with disabilities, lone parents, those who are neurodiverse, have mental health issues or learning differences, or have been in touch with the criminal justice system.
“As a co-operative, fairness is at the heart of all we do and championing a more inclusive employment environment is really important to us,” said Ponsonby. “That’s why we’re so pleased to have hosted this roundtable event. Hearing from Azhar, Leona and Luke, graduates from our Fairer Futures programme, was invaluable in understanding how to make changes that matter, and we’d like to thank everyone else that got involved in the event too.”
Rosie Ginday, Miss Macaroon CEO, said: “We’re so pleased with how our roundtable event went – it was great to chair such a productive conversation around employment equality, helping to hold ourselves and other local businesses and organisations accountable to reducing barriers to employment within Walsall.
“The event was also a good opportunity to appreciate the success of our Fairer Futures programme so far and look to what the future holds for the initiative as it looks to its next phase, supporting even more people in the community into work.”
