Glass Express Midlands’ technical manager, Kirsty Fortnam, is building a relationship with Q3 Academy in Langley.
Kirsty is given a day or two a month to work alongside teachers at Q3 Academy to build a careers framework for students as they leave education and enter the world of work.
Kirsty said: “We see it as a bridge. No-one tells the young adults about what it’s like leaving school and entering the world of work where you have fewer holidays and can’t go home until after 5pm.
“Glass Express Midlands sees this as important work because these young people are the future of companies like ours, and there are currently not many places where they can get the information they need to make plans about their future.
“When I go into schools like the George Salter High School and Q3 Academy, the young adults always have lots of questions about what it’s like to work in a factory, what qualifications they need, how they can work in different roles. It’s great to be able to make that difference and have an impact on their lives.”
Kirsty’s involvement at Q3 academy forms part of Good Career Guidance, which is made up of eight ‘Gatsby Benchmarks’, and helps the academy meet its obligations.
The Gatsby Benchmarks include: ‘linking curriculum with careers’; ‘encounters with employers and employees’; and ‘experiences of workplaces’.
Kirsty added: “It’s an important stepping stone, inviting someone like me into schools, because many teachers have no experience other than education. But it also allows Glass Express Midlands to give something back.”
Kirsty said she feels like she’s making a difference when she talks to young people nearing the end of their school life.
She continued: “When I explain how glass is made up of many different processes and that you can get different types – fire glass, toughened glass, insulated glass – they really start to take an interest. If it wasn’t for this Social Value work we do, there would be nothing to encourage these young adults to consider our industry as a career. We need them and they need us!”
Glass Express Midlands stated that it is also supporting Kirsty as she takes on a governor’s role at a school in West Bromwich, as well as other outreach activities in the community such as feeding and offering first aid to homeless people in Birmingham with Outreach Angels (including buying ingredients for meals), and the annual Poppy Appeal.
