Community programmes
Supporting Young people through education – Education Centres
As part of our commitment to enterprise education, we’ve established three Education Centres at our manufacturing sites in East Kilbride, Edmonton and Wakefield. The Centres enable secondary school students to develop their knowledge and understanding of the world of work and provide a rich enterprise education opportunity for local schools and teachers.
Run by qualified teachers (employed directly by Coca-Cola Enterprises), each Centre has a fully-equipped interactive classroom and offers curriculum-based educational activities and an insight into the production process.
During a typical two-hour session, students study the process of bottling and manufacturing and learn about raw materials, distribution, recycling, sales and marketing. They can also take a guided tour of the manufacturing site and see the production process in action.
Our Centre in Edmonton was purpose-built in 2004 and now hosts over 3,000 students each year. The three Centres together now provide enterprise education to over 12,000 students from 750 secondary schools every year.
In 2006/07 we expanded and improved the work of the Education Centres by:
- Investing over £40,000 to refurbish the facilities at Wakefield and East Kilbride and install new audio-visual equipment at Wakefield.
- Completing a feasibility study for setting up a fourth Centre at our manufacturing site in Sidcup.
We continue to receive positive feedback from pupils and their teachers who tell us that the Centres play an important part in helping them deliver the national requirement of five days of work-related learning per year. In 2006, teachers rated the overall effectiveness of the Centres at 97.5% (up from 95.2% in 2005) with 100% of visiting teachers saying they ‘would recommend’ the Centres to their colleagues.
In 2006 and 2007, our Education Centres were awarded a Business in the Community Big Tick quality endorsement mark for community focused initiatives that demonstrate a high standard of excellence.
For more information, see www.cokeeducation.co.uk.
Days such as this complement what I am trying to achieve in school and provide a real opportunity for students keen to work on enterprise projects to extend their knowledge and test and develop their enterprise skills.” Geoff Liggins, Nidderdale High School
CCE’s commitment to provide a ‘window on the world of work’ has given teachers a fantastic educational opportunity to gain a first-hand look at the exciting world of business with all its challenges.” JULIA CLEVERDON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, BUSINESS IN THE COMMUNITY
