To encourage skills retention within the glazing industry, the campaigning organisation ‘Building Our Skills’ is urging businesspeople to volunteer to speak in schools. To achieve this, the organisation has strengthened its collaboration with the Education and Employers charity.
The move is part of the ‘Inspiring the Future’ programme, led by ‘Building Our Skills: Making Fenestration, Glass and Glazing a Career of Choice’. Industry people can support the initiative, and sign up to speak in a school, by completing this simple form.
Building Our Skills has highlighted the education sector as the single most important area for the industry to focus on when it comes to raising awareness of the opportunities it offers and to inspire future generations to look to fenestration, glass and glazing as a career of choice. John Ogilvie, an ambassador for Building Our Skills, said: “I urge the fenestration industry to acknowledge the need to get more involved with schools and colleges. Working with Inspiring The Future is a great approach to attracting new talent to the industry. It’s a fantastic opportunity to be able to show youngsters the vast range of career opportunities they could aspire to, long before they reach the age when they have to decide.”
Inspiring The Future has been designed to connect young people with work within the glazing industry by encouraging volunteers to visit schools (in person or virtually). The visits aim to help inform youngsters about possibilities for their future careers, and what they could achieve. The renewed collaboration is seen by Building Our Skills as key in helping to acquaint school-age children and their teachers with the fenestration industry.
The campaign connects volunteers to state primary and secondary schools via its free matchmaking platform. Volunteers are asked to give at just one hour a year to the programme, although they can choose to do more if they would like.
The first step is to register on the Education and Employers or Building Our Skills websites, and complete a very simple form. Teachers who have signed their schools up to the programme can see details of the volunteer, where they are based and the industry that they are in. They can then invite them to talk to school pupils about their job and industry.
Invitations for in-person school visits are based around volunteers being local to the school in question. Volunteers are supported by the Inspiring the Future team and are given access to training videos as well as training webinars and forums, where required. Building Our Skills has committed to providing key facts and figures for volunteers to use about the glazing and fenestration industry.
Katy Langham, director of operations and programmes for Inspiring the Future, added: “We’re delighted to have strengthened our partnership to get fenestration, glass and glazing sector volunteers out into schools and talking to young people about the exciting careers that it offers. I too would like to urge employers and employees in the sector to come forward and volunteer. It’s incredibly rewarding, and I can promise volunteers that they won’t regret it!” Find out more at buildingourskills.co.uk.
