Demonstrating The Value Of Collaboration With The Building Birmingham Scholarship

Since 2019, we have been working in partnership with Birmingham City Council on one of many social value initiatives at our Peddimore scheme. The Building Birmingham Scholarship provides access to a wide range of education, employment and training opportunities for talented young people aged 16 to 24 in construction and the built environment.

So far, we have supported 16 students with mentoring, work placement opportunities and funding for university education. In October, we got together with students and stakeholders who have helped us to make this scheme a success to celebrate what we have achieved together.

Don’t you just love those moments when you think – you know what, all that hard work and effort we put in – it really paid off!

Well, our recent celebration breakfast for our Building Birmingham Scholarship students did exactly this.

We all stood back in awe as we listened to the experiences of two BBS highflyers – Sanjida and Zekariye – as they bravely stepped forward and spoke in front of a packed house made up of mentors & members from the IM team, our supply chain, and Birmingham City Council.

BBS is one of many social value initiatives we’ve partnered with Birmingham City Council on for our Peddimore manufacturing and logistics scheme since 2019. It provides access to a wide range of education, employment and training opportunities for talented young people aged 16 to 24 in construction and the built environment.

Between ourselves and our supply chain partners we have to date provided 251 volunteering hours across the programme, 187 of which have been specifically focussed on mentoring. We’ve supported 16 students with a financial contribution to date of £88,000.

We were so impressed with the way students who attended the event networked like total professionals! We looked on proudly as they stepped out of their comfort zone, approached people, joined in conversations, and worked the room.

While improving education and skills is one of our Sustainable Future’s objectives, the roots of our desire to give back and maximise the positive outcomes associated with our projects goes deeper.

Providing help for children in education has been a longstanding commitment of the IM Group, whose Grace Foundation and academies strive to ensure every child is brought up in an environment where they are given the opportunity to reach their maximum potential in life.

The BBS programme clearly demonstrates the value of organisations collaborating across a focussed initiative which provides financial support, personal support, and access to work experience and career opportunities – for some we hope it will be life changing.

As Joy Anibaba who runs the BBS initiative alongside Carl Bradley says, the best results come not from the quantity of students a company commits to but the quality of the engagement, when they are willing to put in real time and resources to support it.

“IMP is one of the best examples of our BBS partnerships’ says Joy. “They really know how to take it and run with it. To see these students, suited and booted, excited for their futures and growing in confidence is so rewarding.

 “It’s the non-academic as well as the academic aspect that really make a difference to a person’s development and through the mentoring and workplace experience the students can gain invaluable social and work skills.”

Kerry Amory our social value manager has worked closely with Joy and Carl from BBS to offer the appropriate support throughout the student’s journey, not just academically but personally too.

“I think that’s one of the areas that really sets us apart on this initiative.” Says Kerry. We really try to connect and understand the students and their needs, and we’ve seen some great outcomes.”

 Usamaah joined us in 2020 as a first year Civil Engineering student studying at Birmingham City University. He was matched with a mentor – Steve Farr our local employment consultant and undertook a work placement with RLB from our supply chain.

Usamaah said: “IM Properties got me a placement to help widen my experience. I was already thinking about what I would do at the end of BBS, and I asked an apprentice working at the company what it was like.  He told me about the Apprentice Scheme, but I had seen on the company website that there weren’t any spaces left.

 “Normally, I would have been too shy to ask, but I went for it, and I got an interview.  It turns out the company already liked me as a person, they had recognised my ambition and they offered me a degree Apprenticeship in Quantity Surveying! 

 “I wouldn’t have had the confidence to put myself forward like that before working with my mentor, he has helped me massively in my career and helped to build my confidence. The placement also helped a lot and it’s made me more determined to achieve my goals. I still catch up with my mentor, it’s good to have someone to talk to about my career.”

The BBS programme is a great example of stakeholders coming together as a collective with a common goal – to creative positive change for young people – supporting them to realise and reach their full potential.

So, what did the students think of the event? “Inciteful”, “Collaborative,” “Informative” were some of the words they came out with, with one going on to say it gives “A real boost to feel part of something. Makes you want to be successful.”

Well, you can’t ask for a better outcome than that!