Education

Every business has a different attitude and approach to involving business in education. As Europe’s largest pharmacy-led health and beauty group, Alliance Boots is committed to helping improve healthcare in the communities we serve. Education is just one vitally important channel which can help us make a difference to people’s understanding of health issues. We have developed a framework which allows each of our businesses to provide appropriate support to relevant educational authorities within their area of operation.

“change one thing” – now in schools

Over the last three years in the UK, we believe that the Boots “change one thing” campaign has made a valuable contribution to the public health agenda, helping thousands of customers stick to their New Year’s resolutions, such as giving up smoking or improving their diet. In January 2008 we extended this successful initiative into schools, launching a website that provides students and teachers with a wide range of online resources designed to encourage young people to think about their health, help them learn the skills they need to make healthy choices, and support them in making positive changes to their lifestyle. Our research highlighted that 97% of the teachers who used the site felt it was effective in inspiring pupils to engage with health issues. (www.boots.com/changeonethingschools)

Sharing our values

In the UK we currently run a number of successful work experience and mentoring schemes in close partnership with educational authorities. Every year, thousands of secondary school pupils take the opportunity of work experience placements in our UK Health & Beauty outlets. We also work with the “Association of Colleges” in promoting good business practice – by providing opportunities for our senior managers to spend time with college principals to show ways in which business lessons can add value to their educational programmes.

“Alliance Boots is committed to helping improve healthcare in the communities we serve”