Throughout November the Club's charity, City In The Community (CITC), is celebrating its employability work.

As part of the activities, Tom, a City Careers participant, showed Manchester City’s Kerstin Casparij how to make a barista style coffee; skills Tom has learnt through a work placement he gained through his time on the City Careers programme. 

Commenting on the activity, Kerstin said: “It is an amazing skill to have. It is the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had.”

City Careers is an eight-week employability programme, working in areas of deprivation to provide health and education benefits, with the aim of supporting young people in education and employment. 

Throughout the course, participants work with CITC staff and external partners, on a series of employability workshops, with a focus on developing soft skills such as CV and cover letter writing, interview practice and how to approach job interviews. 

There is also the opportunity to gain qualifications, such as Level 2 Community Sports Leadership, First Aid Qualification, as well as Food Hygiene and Sale2Site Online CSCS qualifications.

Since September 2022 to August 2023 649 qualifications were awarded to participants on CITC employability courses.

11+ Education Officer, Oliver Murphy said: “Tom is now finding his feet in the hospitality industry as he has been successful in achieving a part-time role as a barista.

“Tom is enjoying utilising the skills he has developed on City Careers in his new role and has highlighted his pride in transferring knowledge and confidence from City Careers into a real-world opportunity whilst providing customers with a high attention to detail and excellent customer service.”

To sign up to the next City Careers cohort or for more information contact [email protected].

City in the Community would like to thank SimTrava, a franchise business that operates 40 branches of Costa Coffee across the North, for helping to provide Tom with work placement opportunities in their partner coffee shops.

Keep an eye out for part two of this video where Kertsin and Tom discuss his journey on the City Careers programme.

Throughout November CITC is celebrating their Healthy Futures pillar programmes, which all build education and employability pathways, so keep-an-eye out across their social media channels for more.

If you would like to support CITC and its work, you can this Christmas through Manchester City’s ‘The Greatest Season of All’ campaign. 

For every purchase a fan makes from a range of selected Christmas retail clothing items, available online and in the City Store, the Club will donate £5 to its charity, City in the Community.

Fans can also make additional donations at the tills in the stadium store, when checking out during their purchase journey for match tickets and via the charity’s new monthly Prize Draw www.mancity.com/citcprizedraw.

City in the Community empowers healthier lives with city youth through football. To find out more, visit www.mancity.com/CITC or follow the charity on social media @CITCmancity.