A ‘Pop-Up Shop’ has opened in London in a bid to help prepare unemployed young people for a career in retail.
The move came as work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, wrote to Simon Cowell also asking him to offer work experience to out-of-work 16 to 24 year olds, following a war of words between the two men over the X Factor TV show.
The ‘Pop-Up Shop’, which opened for business today, sells locally sourced products such as craftwork and fashion items printed with designs by the 15 young people who were selected to take part in the initiative.
The scheme was organised by community development organisation, the Creation Trust, in association with Southwark Council, with the aim of teaching the young adults from the Walworth Road area of South East London how to set up a shop.
A spokesperson from Southwark Council said: “This project has not only delivered valuable new skills to these inspiring young adults, but has also given them the opportunity to think entrepreneurially as well as opening up the world of retail to them.”
Trainees embarked on a four-week training programme in order to learn everything from how to lay out and brand a store to how to select suitable merchandise and price it properly.
At the end of the training period, participants received an accreditation to say that they had gained the necessary skills to equip them for a future career in retail. They will now run the ‘Pop-Up Shop’ for three weeks, which is located in an otherwise empty retail space.
Retail training consultancy, First Friday, provided the young people with mentoring support during their training and will continue to do so during the shop’s trading period.
The X Factor
Meanwhile, according to the Daily Telegraph, the work and pensions secretary, has urged Simon Cowell to sign up his music company, Syco Entertainment, to the government’s controversial Workfare work experience scheme, which has been branded as “exploitative” in some quarters.
The move follows the publication of a newspaper article by Duncan-Smith earlier this year, in which he warned of the dangers of a “twisted culture” that led people to think appearing on Cowell’s X Factor TV programme was the “only route worth pursuing in life”.
The programme also helped feed “the pernicious idea that success is not related to effort and work”, he added. But Cowell retorted that Duncan-Smith was talking “complete rubbish” and that the whole point of the show was to “give people who need a break a break”.
He subsequently offered the minister and his family front row seats to watch the programme to see if it would change his view. Duncan-Smith has now responded to the invitation, saying in an article in The Sun newspaper that he would be happy to take it up.
But he added: “I would like to invite you to offer a few young people a chance to do work experience in Syco Entertainment, on our programme.”
The fact was that 700,000 young people in the UK were currently looking for work and that more than 34,000 had so far volunteered to undertake work experience, Duncan-Smith said.
“We would agree what most young people need is a chance – and for the majority, that will not mean a career in front of the microphone. There are many jobs that are not about performing. If you can pledge these opportunities, it would be welcomed,” he added.
Cowell has yet to respond to the invitation.
