Marks & Spencer is looking to encourage more disabled people to apply for jobs at its new e-commerce distribution centre in Castle Donington.

The Marks & Starts logistics programme, run in partnership with the Remploy employment service, has no quota for numbers of disabled people it aims to employ. The goal is rather to encourage them to apply and remove barriers to their employment.

The 900,000 sq ft warehouse will employ 1,000 new staff and will be able to distribute up two million clothing and homeware products once it is up and running in early 2013.

Disabled applicants will work with Remploy on employment skills before taking part in on-site training using simulated equipment. Afterwards they will complete a two-week placement and, if candidates are not ready at that stage, Remploy will provide additional training.

“Around 10 million disabled people live in the UK and only 49 per cent are in employment,” said M&S director of HR Tamith Dodge. “It doesn’t have to be this way. Our experience tells us that people who face barriers to the workplace are committed, motivated and valued employees.”

M&S said the new Derbyshire warehouse would be central to its multichannel plans. “This new distribution centre will help us deliver our goal of being a leading multichannel retailer by 2015,” said Darrel Stein, M&S director of IT and Logistics. “It will also allow us to better serve our customers with improved availability and extended delivery options.”

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