Johnston Carmichael clothing collection boosts social mobility charities

Professional services firm Johnston Carmichael has collected more than 100 items of pre-loved and new clothing for charities. The collections will be shared with two Scottish charities which help unemployed people to find work.

Jane O’Berg, tax director, Johnston Carmichael, said, “Promoting greater diversity in the workplace is a priority for us as a business. We’ve embarked on several initiatives to attract new talent, including our JC Futures apprenticeship scheme, and our partnership with ICAS Foundation to support accountancy students from disadvantaged backgrounds, but we also want to engage with experienced individuals.”

People take career breaks for all sorts of reasons, from having children to looking for a change of direction, but even in the middle of alleged skills shortages in many of the UK’s businesses, many people find it hard to successfully find new work after a break – with many employers unhelpfully biased against gaps in a CV of any length.

Supporting people with a root back into work in Scotland, Smart Works Scotland provides clothing and coach to women in the country. Meanwhile, Grassroots Clothing is an Edinburgh charity which supplies interview clothing to men who are out of work.

Speaking on the firm’s support of the charities, O’Berg added, “We want those who are ready to return to accountancy to know that our door is open, and we hope our donations to Smart Works Scotland and Grassroots Clothing help people across all sectors to take the next step in finding their dream job.” 

Johnston Carmichael encouraged its people to donate high quality garments suitable for wearing at interviews as part of its ongoing drive to attract a more diverse range of candidates, including returners to work seeking to re-establish their careers. Each office in the firm’s network across Scotland, the North East of England and London, hosted its own donation station, with several gaining support from other co-located businesses and clients. More than 20 boxes of clothing were collected and all items donated were new or nearly new.

Karen Wilson, head of Smart Works Scotland, added, “Johnston Carmichael’s contribution to Smart Works Scotland, comes at a pivotal time, as we are supporting more women into work than we ever have before. Not only are we in the final year of our three-year-plan, to support over 10,000 women nationally by 2025, but we have also just moved to a bigger Edinburgh centre, meaning we can significantly increase the number of women we support. It means a great deal to us to have the support of Johnston Carmichael and we thank everyone at the firm who got involved. We welcome any further donations at such a pivotal time for our charity, to help us in our goal of helping as many women across Scotland as we can.”