Birmingham Future’s Graduate Apprentice Scheme

Birmingham Future’s Graduate Apprentice Scheme has confirmed three top employers for 2010. Existing Graduate Apprentice employer Deloitte are to be joined by Brewin Dolphin and Birmingham Development Company to support the scheme, which is now in its fifth year.

Set up in 2006, The Graduate Apprentice is run by the Talent Retention and Development Committee and supported by Graduate Advantage. It aims to give one exceptional gradate an unrivalled insight into the vibrant social and professional scene of Birmingham through individual sixteen week placements at three Birmingham based firms.

Graduate Apprentice 2007, TRaD Committee chair and now of Deloitte, Jason Norris said: “I can safely say that experiencing working at the three different firms greatly improved my understanding of how the business world actually operates and was the best career decision that I have made. Deloitte continue to support the scheme following my year, offering the opportunity for the Graduate Apprentice to experience the diverse world of a professional services firm. The scheme continues to provide top class candidates, and Deloitte are delighted to continue to be involved.”

Anthony McCourt from Birmingham Development Company Ltd said: “As developers of Birmingham we were extremely keen to become involved in a scheme which helps to promote and publicise the city as an exciting place to live and work. I sit on the committee that helps administer the scheme and quickly realised the value that both the apprentice and the employer get out of participating in the scheme.”

Stephen Jones, a Divisional Director and Head of the Birmingham office of Brewin Dolphin said: “Brewin Dolphin is proud to support Birmingham Future’s Graduate Apprentice Scheme as we firmly believe in the importance of nurturing the business leaders of the future. The apprentice will have the opportunity to assist in the daily tasks of Investment Managers as well as being able to attend business development events and strategy meetings that will help assist in building up a good understanding of the UK financial markets and global economy.”

For further information, or if anyone you know would benefit from applying to be Birmingham’s fifth Graduate Apprentice, visit www.thegraduateapprentice.co.uk.

The New Graduate Apprentice – Emily Williams checks in…

A week after starting as the Graduate Apprentice and I’m starting to settle in. I was really quite nervous the night before my first day in the office, but I had no reason to be! The people that I’m working with are really nice, and are happy to help me with the many questions that I’ve got! I spent a couple of days in London, doing an induction, and then my first couple of days in the office were mainly training based. But now I’m doing more work, and I’m enjoying it. There’s a lot to learn, but I look forward to the challenge that it brings me.

As I’ve only been at Deloitte for a week, and am concentrating hard on getting to grips with everything, I haven’t had much time to think about the next placements. But it will be very interesting to see how the different organisations work, and what role I have in each of them. It’s definitely going to be an exciting year!

I feel proud to be the Graduate Apprentice, especially at such a difficult time. I really want to give it my all, have an open mind whilst at each placement, and get the best from it all. I don’t know what I’ll be doing this time next year, but I know that whatever it is, I’ll definitely have an advantage, having been the Graduate Apprentice. The experience and skills I will gain, I am sure will be vital to me, for the future. I have been told, and can well believe, that the year will fly by. However, as much as I want to learn from it, I also want to enjoy it, and I have already seen that there are plenty of people on hand to help me do this. Let’s hope it goes well!

Birmingham Future appoints the fourth Graduate Apprentice…

Graduates are facing a difficult time in securing jobs during the recession so it became great news to twenty one year old Emily Williams when she was announced this week as Birmingham Future’s fourth Graduate Apprentice.

This year’s successful candidate overcame a field of seventy other graduates all hoping to be given the unique opportunity to experience three diverse sixteen week placements within the city’s professional sector.

Emily, from Coventry, has recently graduated from Lancaster University with a first in mathematics and will start her year as the Graduate Apprentice in September with Deloitte in Birmingham. She will also enjoy placements with the HR department of Matthew Boulton and Sutton Coldfield Colleges as they prepare for the merger of the two colleges to form Birmingham Metropolitan College before completing her year with business consultants, VC Consulting.

Emily is the fourth Graduate Apprentice and the first female to be given the unique opportunity to sample three diverse working environments during a structured year since the innovative scheme was launched in 2006 by Birmingham Future.

The programme is run by the organisation’s Talent Retention and Development Committee and supported by Graduate Advantage.

Emily recently visited all three of the placement companies and enjoyed a tour of the city that will become her home and was excited at the prospect that lies ahead;

“Very few of my university friends have managed to secure a graduate job so I am even more excited and pleased to be given this unique opportunity. Like so many other students, I was unsure of the exact direction I wanted to take after leaving university which is why the Graduate Apprentice programme is so appealing.

“I will now have the opportunity to experience three different working environments and with three very different projects to work on. I shall get to know how a major business operates at Deloitte, be involved with Matthew Boulton and Sutton Coldfield Colleges at a highly important and significant time in their development and find out about life in an SME at VC Consulting. I know this will be a fantastic journey.”

Chair of Birmingham Future’s Talent Retention and Development Committee, Anthony McCourt commented;

“Congratulations to Emily on becoming the latest Graduate Apprentice. The introduction of the Government’s new Graduate Internship Programme highlights the importance they are putting on work placements. The Graduate Apprentice, which has been acknowledged as an innovative scheme by leading politicians, goes one step further by offering three diverse placements which gives a far broader view of the opportunities that exist within professional services. This year’s applications were the strongest we have seen which reflects clearly that this opportunity both excites and stimulates graduates.

“During these challenging economic times, I am delighted we are able to continue to offer this unique programme which is only possible due to the continuing support of our placement firms and Graduate Advantage.”

Making Terrible Tea…

Shihab Hossain, Rachel Hewson, Giles Horwitch-Smith and Mayur.

Mayur Murali, Graduate Apprentice 2008 is almost at the end of his second placement with property management firm LMM.  The second placement has been an enlightening one for Mayur, and as Birmingham Future begin the process to pick the fourth Graduate Apprentice, the Blog caught Mayur in a reflective mood…

With over half my year as the Graduate Apprentice now gone, and applications for next year’s candidates already undergoing analysis for my replacement, I’m beginning to feel a bit like yesterday’s news! It’s like a giant Countdown clock is hanging over my head, tick-tocking away the seconds till the giant bong sounds, and I’m ingloriously dethroned, thrown aside as an over-the-hill has been. Rather melodramatic of course… It’s been brought on by the impending conclusion of my time at LMM, and the beginnings of grown-up hangovers, which really make a night out much harder work than they ever were as a student. However, I still have a whole new chapter to begin at VC Consulting in May, and this got me thinking about what I’ve achieved at my LMM placement, and what I can hope to learn at VC.

Meeting Lord Jones of Birmingham

Last week, a group of Birmingham Future delegates were invited to meet Lord Digby Jones, and Mayur Murali, the current Graduate Apprentice, offers his thoughts on what turned out to be a very productive visit. 

I recently read an article by Peter Mandleson in “The Times” about the significance of free trade. He, of course, was referring to the global credit crunch and the importance of open markets to ensure state fiscal stimulus policies are successful. It makes for interesting reading. It got me thinking about how combating a recession is not just about pumping money into business, but also coming up with innovative solutions to tackle the problem. This can be achieved by a free trade of sorts, the free trade of information (the link is tenuous I know, but stay with me). By drawing on the experience and know-how of senior members of the business community, who have been there and seen it before, we can hope to come through relatively unscathed. 

Which is, of course, what being a Birmingham Future member is partly about: the constant opportunity for learning and personal development. And who better to learn from than Birmingham’s most prominent son, Lord Digby Jones? And so it was that Chairman Matt Taylor, Deputy Chair Amanda Porter, BYPY winner Anthony McCourt and I, went down to London to meet the man himself, take part in a guided tour of the House of Lords, and indulge in a question and answer session.