Building our Community 

At United Biscuits we know we have a key role to play in developing our community, both within the business and the wider world we operate in. As a major food manufacturer we want to help address the skills shortage in manufacturing, particularly in the science and engineering areas, by helping people start and enjoy productive manufacturing careers in these fields. We are immensely proud of the enthusiasm and commitment of our employees. They help and organise a wide variety of projects and fund raising activities to support local communities around our sites as well as contributing to local and national charities.

So what were headlines for UB in 2009?

• In conjunction with our unions we opened nine Employee Learning Centres at our UK Manufacturing sites.
• 714 employees took NVQs in 2009, which is approximately 10% of the UB UK workforce.
• Since 2009 UB have recruited 39 graduates into the business, with a further 20 planned for the 2011 intake.
• We extended our apprentice scheme from 35 to 48 apprentices in 2009.
• UB have provided work placement opportunities for 173 students.
• We designed a video for use within the UK Science National Curriculum module on biscuit design for primary school children.
• We would like 20 additional employees to sign up as School Governors by 2012 – we already have 10 School Governors.
• UB are targeting to offer work experience to 100 students across Europe by the end of 2010.
• We launched WellWise, our workplace wellbeing scheme. WellWise provides a programme of activities and events to educate UB’s employees about healthier lifestyles, encourage them to be more active and address health issues.