Diageo is to use its Guinness Open Gate Brewery in London to onboard the latest cohort of students on its Learning for Life programme.
Between 12 and 14 students will join the youth employment initiative next month at the newly opened venue in London. The six-week programme includes work experience and industry visits, with 92% of participants securing either employment or further education after completing the course.
This year, around 1,100 students will participate in Learning for Life, with the Open Gate Brewery, Diageo’s HQ and its Johnnie Walker Princes Street site all being used as training venues.
Using sites such as the Open Gate Brewery for Learning for Life was important as it gave participants the opportunity to “really immerse themselves” in Diageo’s family of brands, said programme manager Gillian Dalziel.
“Partnering with Guinness Open Gate Brewery is a major thing in terms of just having that exposure to be able to invite the students into our venues, and giving them a sense of who Diageo are and why we do this,” she said. “In Scotland we also do distillery visits to places like Glenkinchie and Johnnie Walker Princes Street, so they can really immerse themselves in our brands.
“Obviously the hospitality side of going into pubs, restaurants and hotels is really important, but it helps for them to be able to see the broader hospitality industry and the production side of the business, because obviously we do offer apprenticeships as a business as well. So it helps for them to be able to see where they can progress onto if it is something they’ve got a real passion for.”
Learning for Life was started by Diageo in 2014, and has supported more than 8,000 disadvantaged young people learn skills and find employment in the hospitality industry.
The programme is funded by Diageo to the tune of £1m annually and is supported by a strategic partnership with the charity Springboard, which provides students with 12 months of post-programme support.
Diageo offers graduates from the programme opportunities for paid work at internal and external events, and graduates have also gone on to secure full-time employment with the Smirnoff brand owner.
This showed the business had a “sustained, visible, strategic commitment to supporting young people in meaningful employment”, Dalziel added.
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