Entries categorized as ‘Birmingham Future’
It’s not everyones idea if a Friday night, but this evening I’ll be sleeping rough. It’s all in aid of St Basils, the Youth Homeless Charity right here in Birmingham. As I write this, I’m surrounded by about 30 others who are all going to brave the November cold for this good cause.
My home for the evening is far from luxury, it’s two cardboard boxes that are not quite long enough to cover my feet and a giant plastic sheet… But the point is that’s more than some of the cities homeless have. I’m hoping my sleeping bag and cycling gear will do the trick, but the truth is it could be a long night!
But it’s for a fantastic cause and I hope it will raise a lot of much needed PR and money… So enjoy your nights sleep and watch for updates on the weather!
- Here is one not made earlier
Categories: Birmingham Future · Birmingham UK
Tagged: birminghamuk, cardboard box, sleeping rough, st basils
On Wednesday 8th October I’m going to be joining around 200 other new graduates in the City at Birmingham Future’s Welcome to Birmingham Event.The event was held for the first time last year, and was such a sucess that it will be repeated again for many years to come.It is basically a chance for a range of new Graduates in the city to get together in one place, and to receive a welcome from people who like them, joined Birmingham as graduates and have now established their careers here. This year, Peter Rees-Steer and Anthony McCourt are going to be speaking, as well as a brief networking session with Sarah Gee.
The event is held at the prestigous council house, and hopefully will be a chance for new graduates to make some friends who are at similar stages of thier career. Birmingham Future run a range of networking events, aimed at encouraging more people to get involved with the city, and this is a fantastic place to start.
Categories: Birmingham Future · Birmingham UK · Graduates Into Employment
Tagged: 8th October, Birmingham Future, Welcome Event, Welcome to Birmingham
September 30, 2008 · 1 Comment
As most people who read my blog, Birmingham Future are the organisation who set up, manage and run the Graduate Apprentice programme, which ultimately, is the reason that I have a job! As part of my aim to give something back to the people who are responsible for that, I have recently set up, and had agreement to run the Birmingham Future Blog. The aim is that its a place where anyone who wants to know about what the organisation can do can visit, find out a little more, or comment on the activities that we are involved in. Its going to be quite informal, with only selected information being included at first, but I’m hoping that it grows into a really useful resource for all involved, or those who want to be involved, with Birmingham Future. So take a look at the blog, find out a little more about who and what Birmingham Future, and leave your comments.
Categories: Birmingham Future · Birmingham UK · Membership Team
Tagged: Birmingham Future, Birmingham Future Blog, new blog
This week is my final week with Stef at Odadeo, and as such, the final week as the Graduate Apprentice. Mayur, who was selected back in June will soon be taking over the role, and I wish him the very best of luck. The scheme is an amazing opportunity, and I have complete confidence that Mayur will take it to new levels.
There was an article in Tuesday’s post about the Apprentice, marking the beginning of Mayur’s year.
Categories: Birmingham Future · Graduate Apprentice
Tagged: Birmingham Post, birminghamuk, Graduate Apprentice, Mayur Murali
As part of my new role with Birmingham Future’s Membership Committee, I had the pleasure of attending the most recent new members lunch today. The event is designed for all of the new members to Birmingham Future in the previous few months, basically a chance to meet some new faces over some sandwiches. Matt Taylor, the Birmingham Future chair took five minutes to welcome everyone to the event and tell us about some of the things that the organisation are involved with under his reign. It was a very well attended event, with about 40 people there, and was very kindly hosted by KPMG.
I met some great people who have just joined Future, and hopefully after hearing about the rather hectic but fantastic year that I have had, they will be keen to become a little more involved with what Future do. My time as the Apprentice is almost at an end, but I will be continuing on the GIE committee and now as deputy chair of the membership committee, Birmingham Future is very much part of my involvement within the city.
There are some key reasons for that, but perhaps the most prominent is the people that I get to meet and work with. I have expanded my contact book beyond all belief this year, not only people that may be useful as a source of business in years to come, but people that I know I can call upon for their advice should the time come. I’m going to be taking part in the Birmingham Half Marathon as part of the Future team just one example of the range of activities you can get involved with. I have high aspirations, which are driven by being part of the city. It if was not for Future, then I would actually be without a job… but the fact that eight or so people sat around a table 18 months ago, gave up their free time and effort and continued to run what is a fantastic opportunity for any Graduate, means that I now have a future to look forward to… excuse the pun.
So if you are reading this and you are not involved in Birmingham Future, but you think that it could be the right way to get ahead in your career and be part of this fantastic city, then I am here to tell you that assumption is correct! Find out a little more about what they do at their website… or drop me an email.
Categories: Birmingham Future · Birmingham UK · Graduate Apprentice · Graduates Into Employment · Membership Team
Tagged: 29th July, Birmingham Future, birminghamuk, GIE Committee, Graduate Apprentice, KPMG, new members lunch
Sitting on the balcony on a summer’s evening is a great way to contemplate how far things have progressed this year. I began my role as the Graduate Apprentice 2007 back on the 17th September of last year, and almost 11 months later, its time to begin thinking about handing on the role. With that, I have been thinking a lot about the time that I have had, the things I’ve learnt this year, and importantly, the fantastic people that have helped me to embed myself within this fantastic city. There will be a further blog post later on, once I’ve had time to evaluate everything that has happened, and to thank each individual concerned.
But right now, its time to introduce the next Apprentice, Mayur Murali. Mayur was selected back in June, after an extremely tough interview process. He instantly accepted the role, and I have every confidence that he is going to take this fantastic opportunity to even greater heights. I wish him the very best of luck in what I know will be a truly amazing year.
So below please meet the team for the Graduate Apprentice 2008. Mayur will be undertaking placements with Deloitte, in the same team that I will be re-joining as a full time Graduate. He will then move on to work with Giles and the team at LMM, where there are some more challenging projects lined up for him. Finally, Mayur will work with the new placement, VC Consulting, who we are thrilled to have as part of the set up. Much like me, there are three very seperate challenges, where I know he will be given a fantastic insight into the professional services world. Pictured below (left to right) are: Shihab Hossain, VC Consulting Director, Rachel Hewson of Deloitte, Giles Horwitch-Smith, CEO of LMM and Mayur himself.
Mayur will be continuing the trend of blogging his experience as the Graduate Apprentice, but right now, you can read a little more about how he reacted to being offered the role.
For me, with about five weeks left, its time to begin thinking about what next… who am I, what is my next challenge…
Categories: Birmingham Future · Graduate Apprentice · Graduates Into Employment
Tagged: Apprentice, Deloitte, Giles Horwitch-Smith, Graduate Apprentice 2008, LMM, Mayur Muralli, Rachel Hewson, Shihab Hossain, VC Consulting
Last night I attended another event linked to my role as the Apprentice. This one was however, a little more social. A Birmingham Future friend of mine, David Neale, is soon to be climbing the Matterhorn, one of the toughest challenges that any human has ever undertaken. David is doing this in aid of SENSE, the national deaf blind charity, who do fantastic work all over the country but are not that well known.
Scary stats are that 1 in 10 people over the age of 60 are deaf-blind, with many of them not knowing it, so chances are that it affects someone in your family. So last night David held a charity auction and raffle to raise some money for this fantastic cause, and it was a great evening to be part of. Laura and I even won a spa day at Hotel-Du-Vin as part of the business card raffle! To provide entertainment for the evening, David gave us a demonstration of his skills by abseiling through the open roof at Hotel-Du-Vin… photo below!
So take a look at David’s Blog, at the work that SENSE do, and maybe even donate a few pounds to help him raise as much as possible. David starts his challenge in nine days time, and I wish him the very best of luck.
Categories: Birmingham Future · Graduate Apprentice
Tagged: Birmingham Future, birminghamuk, david neale, matterhorn, charity, fundraising, hotel du vin, SENSE, deafblind, climb
There are some points during my year as the Graduate Apprentice where I have had the opportunity to begin giving something back to the fantastic Birmingham Community that has welcomed me with such open arms. This morning, I was invited to speak about my role as the Apprentice as part of a breakfast with Graduates and employers. Its organised by Clarke Associates and Graduate Advantage, with breakfast provided this morning by the fantastic Hogarths Hotel. It was a very rare occasion in-fact, the two groups mixing when neither of them were trying to recruit… a very refreshing alternative.
I had to follow Anthony McCourt, one of my mentors, and the current Birmingham Young Professional of the Year, and boy is he a tough act to follow. Firstly, he is only a year older than me, but he has achieved an incredible amount, but secondly and importantly, he is a fantastic advocate of the city, and much like me, having moved to Birmingham from outside, is now a fully fledged ‘adopted Brummie’.
But this morning was all about the Graduates at the event, all of them who were keen to find out how they can begin to build their personal brand, and about how they can find a job within the city that they really enjoy. Just by being there, they were already taking one step on this journey, and I was truly humbled to be there and talk about my journey so far. I was delighted that they listened, and I hope that some of them found what I said useful.
So my year as the Apprentice is almost coming to an end… but there is a lot more I plan to do yet. Its event’s like this morning make it all worthwhile, where I really feel proud to be part of this fantastic city.
Categories: Birmingham Future · Graduate Apprentice
Tagged: Activ8 graduates, Anthony McCourt, Apprentice, Birmingham Future, birminghamuk, BYPY, clarke associates, graduate advantage, Graduate Apprentice, hogarths, jason Norris
I always knew that my time as the Apprentice would come to an end, and that I would have to hand over the role to someone else. That time is not quite upon me as yet, but we have chosen the person who will be taking on the challenge of being Birmingham Future’s Graduate Apprentice.
Interviews were held on Friday 13th June, which could have been an omen, but I’m pleased to say that we had five fantastic candidates at the interview stage, a great representation of the Graduate talent that is currently available in the UK. I was invited to form part of the presentation panel, along with some fellow members of the GIE Committee, where we asked each candidate to present to us on a topic that they felt strongly about. Their range of topics chosen was varied and fantastic, and on more than one occasion the three of us on the panel allowed the presentations to slip slightly over the alloted three minutes so that we could hear more!
Following the presentation, we had a few questions just to get an idea of what drives each individual, and make our minds up as to how they would perform as the Apprentice 2008. After this, we sent the five prospective Apprentice’s into the lions den, or the employers as we like to call them. Here they were grilled in depth about their previous experience, their weaknesses and their ambitions… all those questions that someone fresh out of University hates!
But I am delighted to confirm that our chosen candidate impressed all on the day, and has since accepted the role for the coming year. I am sure that you are going to hear a lot more about Mayur as his time comes around, and I hope that together we drive the scheme forward, continuing to show young professionals that Birmingham is the place to be.
As an aside, it was a great learning experience to be part of my first interview panel, and I did learn a lot on the day about what it can be like. I am sure that at some point during my coming work career, I will again be interviewed, and perhaps interview others, so its great to start building these skills early. The Graduate Apprentice is all about building an impressive skill set to be able to succeed in any professional services role, and that is certainly what it has been to me. I look forward to handing the baton to Mayur, who I am sure is going to do a fantastic job.
Categories: Birmingham Future · Graduate Apprentice · Graduates Into Employment
Tagged: Birmingham Future, Birmingham UK, Graduate Apprentice, Interviews, Mayur
Back at the beginning of April, I was asked to complete a questionnaire on what it was like to be a graduate living in the West Midlands, something which is actually very new to me, but something which as the Graduate Apprentice, I have a unique opportunity to shout about.
I am passionate about the area, living in the city centre has been fantastic for both Laura and I to date, and I could not recommend it more highly to anyone. I described living in Birmingham as “Offering the perfect balance between a professional and personal lifestyle” and I stand by that. If you want to get involved in the city, there are a number of ways you can, but if you just want to work hard and play hard, Birmingham has the answers. Anyway, I was lucky enough to be featured in Real World Magazine, something which goes out to graduates across the country. It even features the name associated with the Apprentice, Sir Alan, on the front cover. I would just like to point out that the Graduate Apprentice is not part of the BBC programme, its something totally different all-together. But it does provide some great press coverage for what is a fantastic role, so who am I to complain. You can read the full magazine here, scroll through to page 36 to see the interview.
Categories: Birmingham Future · Graduate Apprentice · Graduates Into Employment · Lifestyle
Tagged: Apprentice, Birmingham UK, Graduate Apprentice, Real World Magazine, Sir Alan Sugar
