A Birmingham food manufacturer and retailer has secured £150,000 in new funding to support its employment programme in the city.
Miss Macaroon has been awarded the capital by the John Lewis Partnership's Community Investment Fund and will use it to pay the wages of recent and future graduates on its company scheme.
Called Macaroons that make a Difference or MacsMAD, it is a ten-week programme split between training and on-the-job experience, with individuals able to choose between catering and retail.
It is aimed at those aged 18 to 35 and courses are tailored to address each individual's personal barriers to employment like anxiety and learning disabilities.
Corporate partners such as Hotel du Vin, McDonald's and Michelin-starred restaurant Purnell's have previously provided support and mentor talks to inspire trainees to reach for a career in hospitality.
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Miss Macaroon founder Rosie Ginday, who was awarded an MBE in 2018, said: "Like many businesses, covid-19 has caused us lots of issues and things have been very tough but we have been able to keep the MacsMAD course going during the lockdowns.
"This latest funding boost from John Lewis means we can extend the level of support we can offer our most recent graduates and some of the 60 young people we expect to support over the next two years.
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"They are the people we set the business up for and they remain our main priority. The shop and our sales just go into funding the programme and the assistance we can give them once they're graduating. They're the real heart of our social enterprise."
Miss Macaroon, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this week, was founded by Ms Ginday with a £500 grant in kitchen space at University College Birmingham.
She trained under Purnell's owner Glynn Purnell as a pastry chef and launched the company with the aim of helping young people into work.
Including its latest intake, more than 80 people will have been assisted in fields such as cooking, administration and marketing by the firm over the past decade.
The company opened a prosecco and macaroon bar in Birmingham's Great Western Arcade in 2016 and counts celebrity chef James Martin, TV presenter Jeremy Vine and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle among its fans and customers.
Post-lockdown plans to mark the tenth birthday include a grand reopening of its bar and launching new vegan macaroons.
"There has been a 195 per cent increase in online sales during covid-19 so our macaroons have been going further than ever before and this is something we'll look to build on going forward," Ms Ginday added.