The John Lewis Partnership is offering charities a chance to take its employees on secondments of up to six months as part of the retailer's volunteering scheme.

More than 300 charities have received a total of 136,000 volunteering hours from John Lewis and Waitrose employees since the foundation of the partnership's Golden Jubilee Trust in 2000.

The trust awards about 50 secondments each year on a full or part-time basis and assumes the employee's full pay to cover the placement. The equivalent of 19,580 hours were donated to charities last year.

Chris Jones, secretary of the trust, said participating organisations would benefit from the skills provided by the employees, known as partners, from all levels. They receive secondments to help at charities for up to six months.

"Many of the placements occur through partners' close ties with charities, with personal experience triggering their involvement," said Jones. "These are often small, local organisations that struggle with the type of resources, from IT to transport, that we take for granted in the partnership."

Charities can find out more on this link:
http://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/Display.aspx?MasterId=9df36aa1-b32c-493d-bc23-ca1c97bd9f15&NavigationId=623

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