Marks & Spencer has announced that it is joining forces with youth charity The Prince’s Trust to offer 13 places in Newport and Cwmbran for its new youth employability scheme - Make Your Mark.

The scheme is an on-the-job training and mentoring programme designed to address the skills and experience gap which prevents unemployed young people – aged between 13 and 24 - from finding work. The first session was launched in July and saw jobs offered to all participants who passed each element of the programme.

Youth unemployment has recently reached record levels, with more than one in five 16-24 year olds in the labour force struggling to find jobs.

In Newport - one of the 42 areas across the UK to run the September programme of Make Your Mark - current figures show that there are 2,200 unemployed young people.

Pradeep Patel, store manager at M&S Newport, said: “There are hundreds of thousands of young people across the UK struggling to find work and we’re extremely proud to be helping to support some of those through the Make Your Mark programme. We hope to make a real and lasting impact on the lives of the young people coming through the programme at M&S Newport.”

Make Your Mark is inspired by Marks & Start, M&S’ successful employability scheme for young people who face barriers into employment. Since 2004 it has enabled over 1,100 young people to complete placements in stores and offices across the country, with 50 per cent gaining employment with M&S or another programme within three months. Make Your Mark takes this to the next level with a commitment to support even more people by creating 1,400 places in a youth-focussed programme.

To find out more about the next programme in Newport or anywhere across the UK, call 0800 842 842 or visit www.princes-trust.org.uk/makeyourmark.