“The events are extremely well organised and facilitated by the wonderful Bowles team who ensure the apprentices are challenged and supported through various tasks. The programmes are tailored to our needs and are good value for money. The apprentices come away from the experience as a well bonded unit, with increased confidence and self worth.” Head of the Pret Foundation
About the Pret A Manger programme
We have been working with Pret A Manger on the development of their ‘Shooting Stars’ apprentices since 2015. This programme has been designed to help build trust, confidence and team development amongst a very inspirational group of people. These ‘Shooting Stars’ have been recruited by Pret A Manger from the homeless community.
The objectives of the programme
- To help to build the apprentices’ confidence taking into account the difficulties and challenges they face;
- To enable the apprentices to learn to trust in themselves and others;
- To bring out the positive in all activity debrief sessions;
- To have fun and leave feeling positive and confident.
How we met the objectives
Our facilitators met with the Head of the Pret foundation as well as their Regional Apprentice Manager to talk through the requirement of the programme and discuss any issues that may arise. The time spent prior to the programme design ensures that the event truly meets the needs of both the organisation and the apprentices taking part.
Activities were linked to input sessions, debrief sessions and facilitated discussion sessions. All of these sessions were carefully geared towards exploring any difficulties they are likely to face. Feedback received from the apprentices shows that they learnt a lot about their own capabilities, learnt to trust one another and their own judgements.
“The tasks we had to do were physically and mentally fun. They helped with communication skills and and team work (getting everyone involved). I really enjoyed myself and was very happy to be involved.”
“Our facilitator was amazing. They were helpful and encouraging and made us feel comfortable all the way through. They were also very supportive.”