Since launching For Our Future, the social value team have been engaging with various partners to support activities that will help us meet the FOR Communities ambitions.  One of our ambitions is to support 150 people that face significant barriers to be in, or on the path to good careers (whilst this is a much smaller target then the Connections or Improved, this is a massive challenge).

We’ve just partnered with a fantastic charity called Blind in Business (BIB). This charity was established by several graduate students that were visually impaired and struggled to gain employment.

BIB approached us with a proposal to support Johnny, a visually impaired graduate student who is studying at Manchester University.  Knowing that this was the first time we had been asked to offer work experience to someone that was visually impaired, we knew that we had to get a clear understanding of what Johnny wanted to gain from the programme, what support he might need us to provide and any adaptations that we might need to consider.

On 15 August, the Fortem Social Value team met with BIB to discuss the placement in detail.  Through this meeting, we were able to gather information on what Johnny would like to achieve from the placement and bespoke activities to suit his aims.  His interests are technology, systems and innovation, and he wanted to put his ‘work experience skills’ to the test in an office-based environment.

A further meeting was scheduled with BIB along with Fortem Production Manager, Harry Flanaghan, Innovation Lead, Tim Currell. Both Harry and Tim had agreed to be mentors for Johnny during his placement.

A week programme was produced and on 11 September, our team in Stockport provided a work experience placement to Johnny Cooke, supported by Tim Currell. 

Johnny is visually impaired which is a unique work placement for Fortem. Partnering with Blind in Business is one of the avenues that will support our ambition to support people that face significant barriers into a career.

Harry was able to act as mentor at a local level and Tim was able to contribute face to face as well as virtually. Johnny was able to gain great insight into how systems and applications make Fortem more efficient.  He was invited to the Quarterly Application Focus Group and was able to contribute and give his feedback, Johnny was also able to use our Management Information to identify trends to further improve our repairs service.

What did we invest?

• £6k of volunteer support
• 50 volunteer hours including planning, meetings and the actual placement
• 2 mentors plus additional support from the social value team

What we’ve done in the community

• Established relationships with BIB
• Created a week-long programme for Johnny Crooke focusing on his interests of systems, technology and innovation.
• Provide x2 mentors to support Johnny including Harry Flanaghan, Production Manager and Tim Currell, Innovation Lead.
• Tim was able to support Johnny face to face on one of the days and virtually on other days.

Unexpected impact has been created from the partnership with BIB and the Work experience placement for Johnny – Mark Jordon (Site Manager) has reached out to BIB to support his own children who are both visually impaired. 

Josie is 18 and just completed a BTEC in Sport Science but lacks confidence to go to university.  Thanks to BIB, she is now discussing signing up to their Building Prospect Workshop

Jacob is 15, studying GCSEs in his last year at secondary school.  Jacob would like to go to college and study further but wants to ‘get the ball rolling’ as early as possible because there is lack of provision to support him into employment in the area where he lives.  BIB are supporting Jacob to access workshops specifically for 13-18y.

Natalie Burridge, Fortem Social Value Manager says;  “The Fact that this has come full circle to help our employees directly Is to me a real example of why it shouldn’t be an “after thought” or a “nice to do”. It’s what it is all about!”

Providing work experience opportunities for people facing barriers like disabilities can be an impactful way to increase their employment prospects and move them closer to sustainable employment.

Being visually impaired is a significant barrier in finding employment, being able to provide a weeklong work experience placement for Johnny helps to remove the barrier of being visually impaired and aligns with our ambition of supporting 150 people facing employment barriers.