I met with Claire Bickley, The Regional Manager for Code Your future who is in-charge of launching their first Birmingham cohort. Code Your Future is a digital skills solution provider aimed at giving under-represented parts of the city, region, and most importantly refugees and asylum seekers, an opportunity to be part of the technology and in particular, the coding world. Code Your Future is completely VOLUNTEER LED, and therefore without the support of their many volunteers, across teaching, technology, business support and personal development, they would not be able to run as well as they are. 

Claire talks very honestly about the reasons Code Your Future was set up, in order to achieve their personal business goals but also the wider message they intend to send to drive opportunities for people who are often overlooked. 

AS always, these series of podcasts have been recorded to send a message to people across the region, UK and globe, to promote the amazing work these digital skills solution providers are doing in order to bridge the digital skills gap. 

Give it a listen!  

#recx #codeyourfuture #digitalskillsgap #strongertogether

Sometimes, you go and meet a business and set of people who understand exactly WHY you do something. They are on your journey and same path, without realising; Mick Westman and the team at Digital Innovators are exactly THOSE people. 

When I went to meet with Mick and his team a few months ago, Mick and I share the same values and reasons for supporting and inspiring young people to get in to technology and digital. I knew when he agreed to be on my podcast, we were going to be able to have a chat about all the good things we stand for and why Digital Innovators are a unique offering. 

Mick and I talk about all the great things that universities and traditional routes stand for, but why the 48% of people who DON'T go to university need to be understood and given a chance! 

Enjoy this podcast, it's not worth missing! 

#RecX #digitalinnovators #digitalskillsgap #youngpeople #birminghamtech #opportunities 

I speak to Mischa Dey; Laterooms' (The Malvern Group) Head of HR to discuss her role in helping to re-energise the businesses culture and values following their sale in 2016. 

We talk about how the business focused on understanding how people were feeling, promoting communication and regularly listening to their employees in order to see how they could improve the levels of engagement within. 

Through feedback forums and quick wins, Mischa goes on to talk about "how your employees are your most valuable asset and that by engaging your employees they are going to be more committed, motivated and have a positive impact on the business moving forward; but more importantly that employee engagement never stops and is continually evolving so you must always continue to listen! 

I hope you enjoy! 

I thoroughly enjoyed interviewing my wife for my debut podcast, where we talk about an area of employment which we could have spoken about for hours.

In this week’s episode we talk about: 

- Flexitime in the workplace 

- Promoting Shared Parental Leave 

- Coping with working in high pressure roles as a family