Feel Good retail project to enable the disabled

Based on a self-sustainable corporate social investment model, The Feel Good Project provides retail skills training - from sorting, to repairing, to customer service with all revenue generated from sales in the store allocated back into the project.

The first 16 graduates exited the training programme in May and the next group will be joined by two disabled learners under the auspices of Extrinsic, a disability management company.

Extrinsic is working in collaboration with The Foschini Group HR department and The Foschini Group CSI to provide the training opportunity in-store.

These two additional learners will be trained on a two week basis per month for a period of six months, and will comply with all training and other activities in the store.

Says Claudelle David, Operations Manager and Occupational Therapist of Extrinsic: "As a disability management company we are extremely encouraged at the level of commitment that The Foschini Group has displayed in giving our learners with disabilities the opportunity to enter the open labour market. This is the first time that we've had access to the open labour sector and the experience will be invaluable."

"We're looking forward to implementing all that we've learnt from the first group of trainees, who have given us wonderful feedback and worked with us to refine and perfect the project. We welcome diversity and are glad to be able to partner with Extrinsic and to understand how we can assist in providing opportunities for disabled people," concludes Karde Buys, Senior HR Manager for CSI and Wellness of The Foschini Group.