Helping Young People Develop Work Skills

NI Chamber Joins Call for Industry to Help 100,000 Young People Develop Work Skills

After two years of disruption Young Enterprise is planning a full return to the classroom with the business community aiming to engage 100,000 young people.

Business leaders from NI Chamber, the Institute of Directors, CBI, Women in Business, Social Enterprise NI, and Enterprise Northern Ireland have joined forces with the charity to call on companies across Northern Ireland to support young people in developing employability skills for work.

Chief Executive of Young Enterprise, Carol Fitzsimons MBE explains:

“Over the last two years we have developed innovative online learning solutions, but we have been restricted in getting business volunteers into the classroom.

“This generation has had its education disrupted, particularly in terms of skills development, and we are hearing from employers that many young people have anxieties about entering the workforce as a result.

“We need business supporters and volunteers to help us address this emerging issue by bringing the reality of the skills needed for work in the modern economy into the classroom.

“We know the experience of hearing directly from people in the world of work is highly valued, so we’re excited to welcome business volunteers back as part of our programmes. Our aim is to engage with 100,000 young people this year, and that is only possible with support from the business community.”

The charity is echoing the Department for the Economy’s 10X skills strategy and skills barometer in emphasising the need for the entrepreneurial skills, such as innovation and creative thinking. Representatives from business organisations have come together to support the call for businesses to get back into school in the new term.

Christopher Morrow, Head of Communications and Engagement at Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry concluded:

“Businesses in all sectors have an important contribution to make in preparing the next generation of the workforce for the jobs of the future and supporting the work of Young Enterprise is a very rewarding and effective way for firms to make an impact.

“Developing entrepreneurial and business skills early is really important. In Northern Ireland, there is a particular need to promote STEM skills among school-age children, which will encourage them to consider future study and careers in these high-growth areas.”

Lorraine Acheson, Gordon Milligan, Christopher Morrow, Carol Fitzsimons, Colin Jess, Jenny Moore and Michael McQuillan with pupils from St Joseph’s Primary School, Carryduff, Down High School, Downpatrick, Bangor Integrated Primary School and Laurelhill Community College, Lisburn.

Ambition talks to SUKI Tea’s Annie Irwin and Chris Martin from Danske Bank about the company’s experience of becoming more sustainable and why an increasing number of businesses are now striving to do the right thing when it comes to people, place and planet, even if it doesn’t have an immediate impact on their bottom line.

Every company in every sector of the economy can now expect questions from customers, regulators or suppliers about their track record on sustainability, environmental standards and the steps they are taking to reduce their carbon footprint. While this is a major challenge for many, sustainability has been part of the DNA of some businesses from day one. Belfastbased specialist loose leaf tea blender and supplier SUKI Tea Makers is one such business that falls into that category. Since Annie Irwin and Oscar Woolley started their artisan business at a stall at St George’s Market in 2005, almost the first thing they would tell customers was that their tea was ethically sourced – with a clear sourcing policy to choose Fairtrade, organic or Rainforest Alliance certified teas to hold themselves to the high standards of independent certification bodies. This, says Annie, was a reaction to widespread reports about the poor treatment of workers in many tea growing regions around the world. It didn’t make sense to them to create a brand whose point of difference was quality if that came at the cost of the wellbeing of the people

Oscar Woolley (SUKI Tea); Julie Skelly (Danske Bank); Chris Martin (Danske Bank); Annie Irwin (SUKI Tea) and Graham Duff (Danske Bank).

who got that product to them. Instead, they found that where companies cared about their people and the planet, they usually cared a great deal about the plant too. But while SUKI started as it meant to go on, the company realised over time that it was primarily looking at one aspect of sustainability when every area of the business demanded attention.

“Over the years we realised that sourcing was only one part of the business. Yes, we could stand over the quality of the tea and what’s happening on the ground, but there was so much more as a business we could be doing,” she explains. “For many years it was just the tea we focused on. We weren’t looking at our paper printing or our electricity usage or the bubble wrap we used to protect the tea pots. We needed to look further and I’m happy to say that we’re doing that now.”

The business has signed up to Business in the Community’s Climate Action

and Danske BankSustainability with SUKI Spilling the Tea on

Pledge and with a rebrand in 2019 took the opportunity to go plastic free in its packaging. It also began to look at plastic management throughout the business as well as the messages it was giving out to consumers – for example not wasting water by overfilling the kettle. It removed 2.7 tonnes of plastic packaging from the business in year one. “We want to be the best that we can be as a business and we never settle for less,” says Annie. “But that means I want everything to have happened yesterday. I want my net zero carbon strategy understood by the whole team, throughout our supply chain and our customer base. But we’re a small team with limited resources so it felt like we were just chipping away at it. I want to do more so when I heard about the Climate Action Programme I was keen to get on to it.” Danske Bank partnered with Business in the Community to create the Climate Action Programme, which provides carbon literacy training, helps businesses understand their carbon footprint, guides them towards devising a climate strategy and ultimately results in them making commitments to reduce their scope 1 and 2 emissions (direct emissions from owned assets and indirect greenhouse gas emissions associated with the purchase of electricity or heating) by either 30% or 50% by 2030. It also offers advice on actions on reducing scope 3 emissions from supply chain activities they don’t own or control. Danske Bank co-created the programme because an increasing number of customers in a diverse range of sectors were asking them questions about reducing their climate impacts, but didn’t really know where to begin. Danske Bank’s head of Sustainability Chris Martin acknowledges that describing the way companies approach sustainability as “a journey” might sound “a little bit X-Factor”. But he believes it is the most apt definition, because every business which has embarked on the Climate Action Programme needs to take stock, make realistic plans and take time to put them into action before getting where they want to go. “It definitely takes time,” he says. “Companies like SUKI and leaders like Annie are really to be commended for wanting to do as much as they can as quickly as they can. But for many of the businesses who undertake the training, it’s not possible to change everything overnight. It’s a process made up of numerous steps – a journey. SUKI Tea is a fantastic example of a company that is already invested in this type

of journey but is using the Climate Action Programme to accelerate or catalyse their ambition.”

Julie Skelly, head of Belfast Business Centre at Danske Bank, says the bank is committed to helping demystify sustainability for its customers to help them know where to start.

“Green issues are firmly on the agenda in Northern Ireland and companies want to take action, but we’ve found that whether they are a large corporate, an SME or a small business, they often need guidance on best practice or signposting to organisations who can help,” says Julie. “That’s why we have put 100 of our own relationship managers and business advisors through carbon literacy training – so they are equipped to have informed and knowledgeable conversations with customers that help them make progress on their own transition to operating in a more sustainable manner,” she adds. “Local businesses will increasingly be challenged about their approach to climate change by their customers, suppliers and also by their own employees. But addressing climate change isn’t a one and done approach, it takes time, thought, effort and commitment. Danske Bank will make that journey with our customers.” Chris Martin agrees that committing to a sustainability strategy isn’t always straightforward, particularly when a business is faced with other external challenges but believes there are long-term rewards for those who take action.

“It’s about striking a balance and having the boldness to make decisions that really shape the business and align with its purpose and values. Customers are increasingly focused on the view of what they are buying into, what they are aligning themselves to by buying a product and whether that business aligns with their own purpose,” he explains. “If you look at Patagonia, which made headlines recently, that’s a company that has been absolutely true to its values and purpose and hasn’t compromised. There is a complexity to this and it does require resilience – that’s where the programme supports business owners and helps them focus on the big things that make a difference.”

SUKI’s own journey hasn’t been simple, for example when trying to get away from using the traditional material used in loose leaf pyramid bags, which contain small amounts of microplastics. “When plastic-free pyramids for loose leaf tea in came on the market, it was uncomfortable for us because we wanted to use them, but we had an organic product. The material the pyramids were made of was compostable and biodegradable, but it was from a GM source. So we held off moving to the biodegradable material until it was confirmed it could be sourced from nonGM sources,” says Annie. “Consumers want quality, great taste and value for money, but they also want to buy from ethical firms and to understand the provenance of their goods. The decisions we’ve made are more about our ethos as a business and where we want to be. If you were just an accountant you might be saying, don’t do that. But SUKI is our baby. You don’t feed your baby microplastics. You nurture it with the only the best.” While she acknowledges the current turbulence in the economy, the SUKI Tea Makers owner believes businesses can’t afford to put sustainability initiatives on hold.

“Businesses need to take a balanced approach to it but I don’t think we can sit still for too long. The climate crisis is here, it is happening, so you would be damaging your company if you put the brakes on progress you’re making on environmental impact. There is a bigger picture,” she says. “The success of companies like Patagonia shows that consistency is rewarded. It’s important to get the message out there consistently. That’s how you influence those around you, be it the tea industry or the food service industry or our supply chain or the consumer.”

SUKI took part in the Climate Action programme between March and May this year, and the company’s co-founder says it has helped move its strategy in the right direction as it plans for a move to a new state-of-the-art factory that will bring its team together under one roof. “We feel a lot more confident and equipped to benchmark our own Scope 3 emissions after the programme,” notes Annie.

“The programme has got great team engagement and given us the impetus to reach out to Invest NI and Queen’s University to get more support with the next steps, which will hopefully be producing a net zero carbon strategy next year.”

“If you look at Patagonia, which made headlines recently, that’s a company that has been absolutely true to its values and purpose and hasn’t compromised. There is a complexity to this and it does require resilience – that’s where the programme supports business owners and helps them focus on the big things that make a difference.”