Archives: Community

Teesside Park was proud to once again partner with MFC Foundation for the Raise Your Game employability programme, which concluded with a celebration event at Middlesbrough College’s Brasserie.

This nine-week initiative, involving students from the NCFE Level 3 Skills for Business course at Middlesbrough College, focused on a practical town planning project. The programme gave students the opportunity to explore the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors through real-world experiences, including site visits to Teesside Park and the town centres of Stockton and Middlesbrough. As a key programme partner, Teesside Park supported several sessions, including mock interviews with Centre Director Catherine Furlong and Retail Manager Nicola Hopkins. These experiences offered students valuable insight into career pathways and the world of work. At the finale, students showcased their town planning projects and SWOT analyses with impressive confidence and professionalism in front of an audience of business representatives, programme partners and peers. Catherine Furlong, Centre Director at Teesside Park, said:

“It’s been a pleasure to once again support the Raise Your Game programme alongside MFC Foundation. The Middlesbrough College students have shown incredible potential and professionalism throughout. Their final presentations were a true reflection of how much they’ve developed over the past nine weeks, and we’re proud to have been a part of their journey.”

Teesside Park was proud to support the launch of Stagecoach’s brand-new all-electric bus fleet—now operating across the Tees Valley as part of the government-backed Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) programme.

The new fleet of 67 zero-emission buses, operated from the North East’s first fully electric depot in Stockton-on-Tees, marks a major step towards delivering cleaner, quieter and more sustainable public transport for the region. Several of these services connect directly to Teesside Park, making it easier than ever for visitors from areas such as Billingham, Norton and Hartlepool to travel sustainably.

To help raise awareness and celebrate the launch, Stagecoach hosted a family fun day at Teesside Park featuring free activities and giveaways, welcoming local visitors to learn more about the benefits of electric bus travel.

As part of the celebrations, Teesside Park worked with Stagecoach and the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) to wrap one of the new electric buses in zebra-themed artwork designed by local schoolchildren—bringing a fun, creative touch to the fleet and highlighting the region’s commitment to greener travel.

Teesside Park was delighted to partner with Stagecoach on this initiative and promote more sustainable transport options for the community.

For more information on how to reach Teesside Park by bus, visit: https://www.teessideshopping.co.uk/news/bus

Teesside Park has officially welcomed its first-ever Chief Fun Officer – 10-year-old Jack from Marton in Middlesbrough! Chosen from over 260 entries, Jack impressed the team with his kindness, community spirit and incredible fundraising efforts. From a young age, Jack has been dedicated to helping others.

He raised nearly £2,000 for St Mary’s Cathedral, where he serves as an altar boy, by completing the Run For All race. He also took part in the Run 21 challenge with his family, raising £1,500 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association in memory of his grandad. Most recently, Jack and his friends collected over 200 Easter eggs to gift to local families across Teesside.

As Chief Fun Officer, Jack spent a jam-packed day exploring all the fun Teesside Park has to offer. His adventure started at Lush, where he created a custom bath bomb, followed by a sweet treat stop at Hotel Chocolat. After catching a movie at Showcase Cinema, Jack wrapped up his day with noodles at Wagamama’s. Reflecting on his experience, Jack said:

“I had the BEST day at Teesside Park. There’s loads to do and I loved getting to hang out with my family. I made the messiest bath bombs at Lush and had yummy noodles at Wagamama’s. I can’t wait to come back – I’m giving it my official CFO approval!”

His mum Melissa added:

“It meant a lot to have Jack’s fundraising efforts recognised – he’s always looking for ways to support people and give back. Huge thanks goes the Teesside Park team for making it a great day and giving him the well-deserved Chief Fun Officer title.”

Catherine Furlong, centre director at Teesside Park, said:

“We had some wonderful applications for our CFO role, and were blown away by the number of entries and everyone’s passion for the job! It was a difficult decision to select just one candidate, but Jack stood out as a brilliant choice for us, with his passion for helping others really shining through.

“We’re always looking for ways to enhance our visitor experience, and we’d like to thank Jack for helping us to do just that.”

To find out more about the retailers and experiences on offer at Teesside Park, visit: https://www.teessideshopping.co.uk/eatdrinkshop

Over the last few months, Teesside Park and MFC Foundation continued their partnership with “Raise Your Game” – a nine-week programme, giving local young people a fantastic opportunity to gain first hand business experience and to consider an exciting career in retail and hospitality.

This year, sixteen Year 9 students from North Shore Academy in Stockton-on-Tees participated in the programme.

The topics covered included exciting and informative employability skills, CV building sessions, behind the scenes view of retail and leisure environments and lots of opportunity to hear about other professional’s career journeys.

They also took part in scavenger hunts, creating a SWOT analysis and had the opportunity to come up with a business plan for their own store at Teesside Park.

Closing the programme, the students took part in a “Dragon’s Den” style session where the students presented their business findings to a panel of Teesside Park judges.

A special thank you to all the retailers that took part, welcomed the young people into their stores and truly inspired them for a potential future career in the retail, hospitality, and leisure business.

We are hosting a free employability training programme throughout September designed to help young people take their first step onto the retail career ladder.

The five-week ‘Bright Lights’ programme, which is run in partnership with the Middlesborough Football Club (MFC) Foundation, aims to give people aged 18-24 high quality retail training, advice from industry experts and support with interviews and CV writing.

Those on the scheme will also gain valuable on-the-job experience through work placements with some of our biggest brands, such as Nando’s, Boots, M&S and Asda. During these placements, individuals will learn how the business operates as well as build customer service skills, and they may also be offered interviews for permanent employment.

Anyone aged between 18-24 can take part in the scheme, which starts on Tuesday 12th September, with no interview or formal application required.

Catherine Furlong, centre director at Teesside Park, said:

“We know it can be difficult to get your first step on the career ladder, so we’re proud that Bright Lights has helped to kick-start many young people’s employment journey over the years. Not only does it provide a fantastic opportunity to seek advice and learn more about the retail industry, but it also gives people the opportunity to gain invaluable real life experience.”

Amy Campbell, secondary education coordinator at MFC Foundation, said:

“We’re looking forward to getting underway with the Bright Lights programme again and have a host of experts ready to share advice, training and job opportunities with young Teessiders.

The Bright Lights initiative is a free five-week scheme starting on Tuesday 12th of September. If you are interested in joining the full scheme, please email [email protected].

To help support local families in need during the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve gifted bundles of popular children’s books to Little Sprouts Health and Wellbeing.

The charity has shared 300 books with local families along with free activity booklets filled with fun and educational worksheets based on familiar fictional characters such as Alex Rider, Judy Moody and Maisy Mouse.

With many children not attending school due to Covid-19, and the school holidays on the horizon, we worked with our long-term partners the National Literacy Trust to provide local families with the brand-new books and educational materials.

This project follows our long-running campaign in all the local communities of our shopping centres across the country to help encourage children to enjoy reading outside of the classroom and to provide them with the resources to do so.

Free virtual storytelling videos
Working with the National Literacy Trust, we’ve also created a series of virtual storytelling sessions designed to support children’s listening and creative skills and to help spark a love for stories. Visit that National Literacy Trust website to watch.

Our Young Readers Story Club will feature videos from brilliant authors and poets each week, so don’t forget to check back on a regular basis.

Free access to fun educational activities
For more free and fun educational activities for children up to 12-years-old, take a look at the National Literacy Trust’s Family Zone website which has got plenty of exciting tasks to keep kids busy and entertained. There is also a separate section for over 13s to help boost their reading and writing outside of the classroom.

The Reward and Recognition allows us to recognize the individual contributions our team members make. At the end of each month, management make time to discuss which employees have especially stood out – this can be anything from an overall positive attitude to an achievement of something out of the ordinary.

We also have installed new back of house facilities, have equipped the staff room with mobile and tablet chargers and carried out team building days to ensure we continue to be a close-knit and happy team.

In making Teesside Park a pleasant place to work, we ensure our centre exudes a positive atmosphere for everyone who spends time here.

It is important to us that we encourage local charities and businesses to make the most of our facilities. Within the last 12 months, Teesside Park has hosted a range of charitable events and has supported numerous good causes, such as Zoe’s Place, British Heart Foundation, Alzheimer Society, Cancer Research, Barnardo’s Project Night Watch and Middlesbrough Football Club Foundation.

In numbers, recent years have been a huge success. We spent £234,000 on community programmes over five years, benefiting local people, charities and community groups through cash contributions, time volunteering, in-kind donations and fundraising.

We host Young Readers Program too, which so far has seen 1,290 schoolchildren choose free books and take part in fun, educational literacy events at Teesside Park over five years, thanks to British Land’s long term partnership with the National Literacy Trust.

Our customers have been invaluable in donating time, money and unwanted items. Your work for the British Heart Foundation has been especially appreciated. Some 1,500 bags of goodies were handed in by generous shoppers and retail staff for the charity over five years, helping fund vital research and support for people living with heart conditions.

Part of our strategy is to ensure we are well established within the community, providing a place for local people to spend their time. So far, over 150 million shoppers have visited Teesside over the past 25 years – that’s a lot of feedback at our disposal. Now that improvement works are underway, we look forward to welcoming customers, new and existing, to a further-enhanced Teesside.

We like to connect with local partners to strengthen our understanding of local community needs, as well as helping people in the neighbourhood to progress by supporting local jobs, goods and services.

Promoting wellbeing and enjoyment at Teesside is paramount, both for our staff and customers. We relish the place-making initiatives, curated by British Land, that make our space the kind that can be offered to local community projects and support educational initiatives for the people of Stockton-on-Tees.

Customer Service is essential to us here at Teesside and we aim to provide our customers with the best experience possible.

In particular, we take pride in our staff’s participation in the WorldHost Training programme which ensures excellent customer service standards throughout the entire shopping centre.

All members of the site cleaning, security and management teams were trained to precise World Host standards and to maintain customer service levels. Our output is regularly assessed by mystery shoppers, and we often conduct customer surveys to ensure we’re continually progressing our services.

We believe that the pride we have in our team, and dedication we have to our customers, is what drives Teesside to be the family friendly establishment it is known as today.