2007 Graduate Apprentice Blog

I’m just back from another great evening out, again made by the company.  As the Apprentice, I’m fortunate enough to sit on Birmingham’s Future’s Graduates Into Employment Committee.  The group of volunteers aim to address the challenges faced by new graduates to the city, and to run events and workshops which encourage them to stay and help develop the way the city works.  They are responsible for the running of my job, The Graduate Apprentice, as well as the Welcome to Birmingham Event mentioned in previous posts.

Tonight, however, was not about work, and was a chance for us all to catch up over a Handmade Burger and a drink.  I choose the venue, and Mike from Marketing Birmingham was incredibly kind in picking up the bill. It was  a great chance to find out a little more about people, like how some like to surf, others play netball and all of us seem to be worried about when we are having kids… or rather our parents are! I’m only 23, so mine are way off yet, but at least I have chosen the names.

In all, it was again a great evening in a great city.  I know that I do rave on about it, but I really do believe that Birmingham is a fantastic place to be, a place made by the people within it.  Everyone involved with Birmingham Future are involved because they want to, and because they believe that they can add to the fantastic city that it is.  I spent an evening discussing where young professionals could live in the city, how difficult it is to find somewhere in the middle, with all of the benefits of a house, but still close enough to walk into the city centre.  We all decided that the lack of recycling in Birmingham is an issue, one which could be quite easy to address.  I guess the old phrase ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ springs to mind, but not allowing a tenant of a building to recycle commercial waste because the skip would create an eyesore is a problem… is no-one thinking about the long term?

I’m lucky to be in Birmingham, a few changes along the way and I would not be, but now that I am here, I am determined to make my mark on the city.  Birmingham Future, and the Graduates Into Employment Committee are one piece of the jigsaw, and again I am proud to be involved.  No other city can offer young professionals the chance to become involved in so much, as well as giving them the chance to build networks which grow and develop their business.  

In all, Handmade Burgers and like-minded young professionals are a great combination to fill an evening.  There truly are some fantastic people in Birmingham, with some fantastic ideas, and I look forward to a future where those ideas are realised.