Local business welcomes female students to mark International Women’s Day
Coca-Cola Enterprises and Your Life hosts visit at Uxbridge headquarters to promote women in business.
Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) this week opened the doors of its GB headquarters in Uxbridge, to a group of female students from six local schools, to offer first hand insight into the business. The visit, which marked International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8th March, also involved meeting female employees from CCE to discuss their careers and experiences in the food and drink industry.
As well as learning more about how CCE operates as a local business, the group of 13 to 16 year olds took part in a range of activities to support the teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) at school. The visit aimed to illustrate the importance of STEM subjects within the workplace, and the range of opportunities such skills present, supporting efforts to tackle the national skills deficit in these subjects and low levels of young women pursuing them beyond GCSEs.
Students also had the opportunity to meet female employees during a “speed-networking session,” to discuss their experience within the business, what attracted them to the industry and any potential challenges they face in their role.
The initiative supports two of CCE’s core sustainability commitments of promoting workplace diversity and helping to provide young people with the skills and information they need to develop their future careers. Last year the business expanded its sustainability targets committing to support the skills development and learning needs of 250,000 young people each year by 2050 as well as an aspiration to have a minimum 40 percent of women in both management and leadership grades by 2025.
The visit was also supported by Your Life as part of its ‘The Best School Trip’ initiative which seeks to boost uptake of STEM subjects at A-Level by connecting students with relevant companies in the country to showcase their dynamic workplaces. The programme forms part of the Government backed campaign which aims to inspire teenagers to explore the wide variety of career opportunities available with Maths and Physics skills.
IWD has been observed since the early 1900s and is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
Bill Muirhead, Senior Manager, Education Programme EU at Coca-Cola Enterprises, said: “Supporting diversity and education is a core part of our Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability work at CCE. Through our connections with schools, academies and universities, we aim to show the exciting reality of what manufacturing is today and that it is a highly skilled environment to work in. Diversity is extremely important in any industry and manufacturing is no exception. It’s a career that young women can actively consider, and we make this clear through initiatives such as this as well as through our wider education programme. We are proud to have hosted this visit to mark International Women’s Day, to show young women the range of roles which are available to them, in an industry they may not have considered before.”
Toby Hicks, Campaign Communications Director at Your Life, said: “We are delighted to have worked with Coca-Cola Enterprises to organise such an eye opening visit for these female students on International Women’s Day. As our recent Tough Choices report shows, there is a particular challenge with keeping girls interested in STEM subjects during secondary school, despite the range of exciting careers available. Trips such as this can therefore have a transformative effect on young people and we urge other employers to follow CCE’s example in empowering young people to make informed choices about their future.”
