THE Ayrshire Hospice shops network was delighted to trial a new working collaboration with Street League recently to provide employment opportunities for local young people.

The hospice shop in Troon offered work experience placements to Josh Connell and Jack McIndoe, to give them an opportunity to learn skills, gain confidence and enhancing their CV to help with future job hunts.

Troon shop manager Angie Wallace believed it to be a successful partnership and explained that plans were in place to continue collaborating with Street League. She said: “From my point of view I gained two extra voluntary staff members over the weeks they were here, both reliable and punctual, honest and adaptable to the needs of the shop.

“I found they were genuinely interested in any training that I was giving them and keen to learn more. Very quickly they knew exactly what I expected of them and maintained a high standard of work.

“Both boys covered till training and customer service in the time they had within the shop and gained an in-depth knowledge of how a charity shop operates and the importance of Gift Aid and making a good profit margin.”

Such was the success of this program at our Troon shop, plans are now in place to roll out this partnership fur ther with recruits working in our Ayr and Prestwick shops in the spring and into East and North Ayrshire stores over the rest of the year.

Street League, a leading sport for employment charity, sources job placements for unemployed people aged 16-25 looking to gain key skills , qualifications and work experience to move into a job or further training.

Furthermore, it uses spor t as a means to develop other skills such as teamwork.

If you would be interested in volunteering in one of our shops we’d love to hear from you and currently have a number of vacanc ies ac ros s Ayrshire.

Visit www.ayrshirehospice.org, email recruitment@ayrshirehospice.org or call Karen Donnelly on 01292 269200.