The Benevolent to offer skills bursaries

By Emily Kearns

Published: 27 June, 2013

Drinks industry charity The Benevolent hopes to double the number of people it can help by 2017 by offering training and skills bursaries to the trade, as well as looking after people when they fall on hard times.

The moves signals a new strategic direction for the charity which will see it close its care home on the Vintry Estate in Eastbourne and sell the 27 bungalows it owns on the same site to property company, the William Pears Group.

"The sale of the care home frees us from what was a drain on our resources, and was losing us money, and will help us broaden our appeal and reach a lot more people," explained David Cox, chief executive of The Benevolent.

As part of its new approach, it is setting up a Benevolent Bursaries scheme where it will be able to provide funding for members of the trade or previous drinks industry employees for specialist skills training.

This will not be wine-based training, stressed Cox, but providing development skills in areas that help better prepare members of the trade in their careers.

Cox said it would be looking to work with human resources departments of major drinks companies and retailers to identify the best way in which they can provide complementary support, but also said it hoped to reach out to smaller companies without corporate training budgets.

He stressed that the 19 beneficiaries in the Eastbourne care home have all been found new homes and those living in the Eastbourne bungalows will continue to live there and receive support from the charity.

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