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Barclays joins forces with The HALO Scotland

30 January 2019

Barclays today announces it will be partnering with The HALO Scotland at its Kilmarnock urban regeneration site, which will seek to develop entrepreneurship and the employability skills of young people and adults across Scotland.

 

The collaboration will see The HALO working with the bank’s local business relationship managers, High Growth & Entrepreneurs specialists and the LifeSkills created with Barclays programme, which aims to provide 10 million young people and adults with skills to move forward into the workplace, by 2022.

 

Barclays and HALO will explore opportunities to:

 

  • Enhance HALO’s employability initiatives for individuals in Ayrshire - irrespective of age - through LifeSkills created with Barclays, access to education and application of digital technology.

  • Help start-up and scale-up entrepreneurial businesses to capitalise on growth opportunities.

  • Facilitate connectivity and collaboration with other businesses locally and across the UK.

 

Today’s announcement builds on Barclays’ long-standing commitment to Scotland. The bank recently announced a new state-of-the-art campus will be launched at Buchanan Wharf in Glasgow to accommodate up to 2,500 additional people and doubling Barclays’ current workforce in Scotland.

The HALO Kilmarnock is an imaginative, innovative and inspirational regeneration initiative located on the site of the former Johnnie Walker bottling plant in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire. It is being shaped as a multi-faceted brown-field regeneration that will create a unique urban park with a dynamic commercial, educational, cultural, leisure and lifestyle quarter.

 

Marie Macklin CBE, Founder and Executive Chair of The HALO Urban Regeneration Company, said: “In partnering with The HALO, Barclays is supporting an urban regeneration initiative that will provide young people and adults across Ayrshire and Scotland with the skills needed to thrive in the digital age. It will be fascinating to see Barclays utilise its expertise at The HALO and support the generating of economic growth, innovation, enterprise and digital skills development.”

 

Stuart Brown, Barclays Head of Business Banking in Scotland commented: “We look forward to working with HALO and providing our expertise and support - specifically around the upskilling of individuals and providing help to create and grow businesses locally.”