MEMBER NEWS Plymouth Citybus’ award-winning initiatives
Plymouth Citybus’ Social Mobility programme, thought to be the only one of its kind run by a bus company in the UK, is designed to give city people from disadvantaged backgrounds an equal chance to do well. Its aim is to help people who feel
marginalised by a lack of opportunities - including young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, disabled residents, those from ethnic minorities and women – to find jobs and education. The company works with people in long-
term unemployment to guide them through the process of getting into a job through using the firm’s Work Academy in partnership with City College Plymouth and the Department for Work and Pensions. It has helped 50 long-term unemployed people go on to attain jobs at Citybus or with other companies. The firm also ensures equal opportunities for progression at Citybus, and wants to
employ more women drivers, aiming at a figure of 20% of all drivers, and drivers from ethnic minority backgrounds and is a leader in Plymouth on equal opportunities, successfully closing the gender pay gap. The company also partners with PLUSS, a
social enterprise which helps disabled people get into work, to deliver training programmes, and with the Ministry of Defence on the Career Transition Partnership to aid military personnel obtain employment on leaving the Armed Forces. Its apprenticeship and training programme
is targeted at young people in Plymouth’s most disadvantaged areas. Citybus also works with schools, including
All Saints Academy, and its Go-Inspire initiative, in partnership with Widening Horizons, sees it host children from six schools to give them an experience of how Citybus works and the sort of jobs available.
It is the only bus company in the country to
work with local government and charities to provide the innovative Access Plymouth scheme.
Alongside Plymouth City Council and
PLUSS, it helps to get those with disabilities to work and health and social engagements with a door-to-door transportation service. The firm’s Training Team regularly visits
people with disabilities to give them confidence and help them learn how to use the bus, thus giving people freedom they previously hadn’t experienced. Drivers are also trained in dementia and disability awareness. Citybus also offers free travel to jobseekers
‘Plymouth Citybus doesn’t
attending Job Centre appointments and has extended commercially-operated routes to maintain links to hospitals, schools and shopping centres that would otherwise have been lost due to the withdrawal of subsidised services.
just help people get from A to B. It helps people move through life’
The Plymouth Citybus team pays tribute to NHS workers
Summer 2020 Chamber Profile 7
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