At the Lancashire Careers Hub, we’re proud to partner with Booths as one of our Cornerstone employers. Our Cornerstone working group in Lancashire regularly meet throughout the academic year to target disadvantage, promote pathways, upskill and inform educators, parents and carers and drive better outcomes for young people.

Our Cornerstone employers find benefits in coming together as a community of practice and say the opportunity leads to more effective recruitment, key to building a stronger, diverse, talent pipeline, and ensures their connection to local people is deeper.

One of our Lancashire schools have made a strong connection with their local Booths, Silverdale store over the past couple of years and this has led to a wonderful partnership and unique opportunity for their students.

Read about their experience below, kindly written by Karolina Zablocka Learning and Development Specialist.

SUPPORTING BLEASDALE SCHOOL’S NEW POP-UP SHOP: A REAL-LIFE LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Summer 2024, Booths received a heartfelt request from Becky Parker, Lead Practitioner at Bleasdale School, which provides an inclusive environment for children and young adults (ages 2-19) with profound learning difficulties and autism spectrum conditions. The initiative aims to create a pop-up shop within the school, serving as a hands-on learning tool for students.

The Vision Behind the Pop-Up Shop

The shop is designed to equip students with essential life skills in a practical setting. Key benefits include: Real-World Experience – Students gain practical experience in a shop environment. Life Skills Preparation – They develop foundational skills, such as handling money and completing transactions. Work Experience and Confidence – The shop provides valuable work experience, boosting social skills and self-confidence. Community Interaction – Open to the public, the shop invites community members to engage with students and purchase locally made items from Bleasdale’s enterprise programme.

Booths’ Support

Booths team members visited Bleasdale to see the transformation of an empty room into a vibrant Booths-themed store, complete with shelving, a till, baskets, and promotional materials. The decor includes marketing visuals that create a realistic shopping environment, enhancing student engagement.

Special Thanks to Our Partners

The project’s success is thanks to numerous partners, including:

• Will Ward and Anthony Butler – Designed signage and window stickers.
• JKN Digital – Printed artwork at no cost.
• Peter H Smith – Donated artificial flowers.
• Jonathan Metcalfe – Coordinated equipment delivery.
• Andrew Taylor and Andrew Fordham – Managed signage installation and maintenance.
• F Brown Ltd. – Transported and assembled shelving.
• Wayne from North West Business Machines Ltd. – Donated till equipment.
• Joanne Seed – Central Services Manager – donated Booths uniforms.
• Philippa Walker – designed art work concept.
• Nicola Karran, Matt Bruno and Karolina Zablocka liaised with the Booths Team and maintained relationship with Bleasdale School.
• Helen Clarke – donated POS
• Matt Thomas – planned space and helped with installation.

Opportunities for Further Support

While the transformation is well underway, there’s still room for additional donations and the school is looking for non-perishable items to be donated to enhance the shopping experience. We invite anyone interested in contributing to contact Karolina Zablocka at kzablocka@booths.co.uk.

Anticipation for the Grand Opening

The Booths @ Bleasdale School pop-up shop is now open and had its grand opening in early December 2024, marking an exciting milestone for students and the community. This project offers a stepping stone for students toward independence, equipping them with skills for life beyond school. All proceeds will support the annual student trip, fostering growth and joy.

A Booths colleague shared, “The experience was extremely enjoyable and rewarding. It was a pleasure to meet the students and staff at Bleasdale School and collaborate with my Booths colleagues and contractors to create a retail environment that will help students prepare for life after school.” — Matt Thomas

Bleasdale school successfully applied for the SEND Workplace Encounters Innovation fund this year through the Lancashire Careers Hub, which aims to support young people attending SEND institutions to experience meaningful encounters of the workplace through new and innovative models. SEND schools across Lancashire, including Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen had the opportunity to apply for £1000 worth of funding for greatest impact driving innovative change and creating positive relationships with employers.

Bleasdale, having already built a great working relationship with Booths, now intend to expand this opportunity for students by creating two more employment rooms for students; a hospital ward and a hairdressing salon.

This is a whole school project and will provide individual learning opportunities for all students; they will offer equal opportunities and a range of learning experiences for all regardless of their disability. Each student will access the employment rooms once per week for up to one hour and over this time students will gain varying levels of understanding about different job roles, discover their interests and allow them to demonstrate preference. The school hope to further develop workplace encounters and invite external employers to work alongside pupils in the space creating themed days and striving to continually improve.

Parents/carers will be encouraged to reinforce the project, by supporting their young people to use their newfound skills at home. The school will also share the progress with governors and the local community by inviting them to open days and sharing their progress on social media.

We can’t wait to follow their journey!