Member Article

Work experience success shared at Katie Bard event

How Birmingham businesses can get the best out of work experience programmes was on the menu when a breakfast event was held in the city.

Around 30 business professionals took part in the event held by recruitment firm Katie Bard at Bruntwood’s Mclaren building.

The session included talks on how to get the best out of work experience programmes and retain talent from Jennifer Nicholson, HR manager at law firm SGH Martineau, Wendy Duprey from Pathfinders Media Recruitment and Gary Cardin, Birmingham Forward chairman and partner at Deloitte Real Estate.

Verity Stokes, team leader at Katie Bard which is part of the international Angela Mortimer Group and has its Birmingham offices on Waterloo Street, said quality work experience programmes can be the key to retaining talent in the Midlands.

“The overriding feeling within the room was that work experience is often undervalued and underutilised by lots of companies and is impacting on the city and the wider region’s ability to retain top talent,” she said.

“There are however many businesses doing lots of great things to nurture talent and we’re delighted that Jennifer, Gary and Wendy could join us to share success stories and inspire others.

“At Katie Bard we are working hard to increase awareness of work experience placements available and the benefits providing a structured programme can bring to an organisation and add value to the business.

“Research carried out recently found that 67 per cent of graduates want to stay in Birmingham after completing their studies, whereas previous findings were that more than two thirds had wanted to return home or go elsewhere.

“It’s positive that Birmingham is heading in the right direction and we look forward to doing everything we can to help the city to get the best out of the great people it’s developing.”

PICTURE - John Mortimer (Managing Director of Angela Mortimer Group), Wendy Duprey (Pathfinders Media Recruitment), Jennifer Nicholson (SGH Martineau) and Gary Cardin (Deloitte Real Estate)

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Pete Squires .