Foundation students Mitchell Hodgkinson and Harsukh Dhaliwal are running a “Blind Date with a Book” campaign, supporting the employability unit as part of their Foundation Work Skills programme.

Supported by tutor Dawn Jenkinson, books were donated to the department, to sell every Thursday morning until Christmas (or until they sell out!). Mitchell says, “The idea is not to judge a book by its cover and find an amazing story!”

The students were then given £10 to get supplies to create a unique experience for their customers. These included wrapping paper, chocolates, drinks sachets, tape, and ribbon. This has allowed them to wrap up the books, include treats and write a blurb on the label with basic information such as genre and themes.

This also gave students the opportunity to practice budgeting and careful planning to get enough supplies for all the books and work out how much to sell them for to make a profit.

Each adult book is £1.50 and children’s books are 70p, each parcel is designed to be ready for Christmas or as a personal treat and the students say they are very excited to already be selling them fast!