Be the change you want to see: How our volunteers are making an impact during the pandemic

Hear from some of our volunteers who talk about their experiences, motivations and lessons learned on our volunteering programmes. You will also hear from one of our Steps Ahead mentees, who shares how the programme has helped her.

Transcript

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really exciting session this afternoon and we've got a fantastic panel that
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you're going to hear from and consisting of some of our amazing volunteers and also one of our beneficiaries from one of our
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programs and hopefully what this session will bring you is just a bit more insight into
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some of the social impact programs that we run and and how you can potentially get
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involved and my name is jamila pareishi and i lead our social impact team at the cipd
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and and before we get started on the panel i've got a few little things to
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run through um and just to say as well that we will also be joined by our chief exec peter chiefs
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later on so he will be and he'll be joining our session a little bit later and but i'll just run
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through a couple of things before we introduce our fantastic panel um so the first thing is
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uh just a little bit of a reminder really in terms of and for you as people professionals and
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members of the cipd in terms of some of the benefits that you have access to as well
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as being able to become part of some of our volunteer programs and it's just a bit of a reminder really
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in terms of in terms of what those are so some of the code 19 resources for example that you may have already used
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a lot and something that's a bit newer are well-being helplines so and so yes just a little
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reminder of our member benefits there and if you want to find out more then do and to have a look at our website and
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so the other thing i just wanted to run through before before we introduce our panel is just a bit of
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etiquette for this afternoon's session in terms of how we're gonna kind of run things and as you would have
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heard uh i think you heard the little announcement at the beginning but this session uh will be recorded um and you
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should have had a little notification to let you know that when you joined um and the duration of the session is
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going to be 90 minutes so we are expecting to finish promptly at two o'clock and we have
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allowed um plenty of time for um q a with our panel and and we will be asking you to submit
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questions as we go and i think everybody when you've joined has been muted upon
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entry to the webinar and so just to ensure i don't think you can put your videos on but if and just to make sure that your
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videos are turned off and just so that we don't overload the the network and if we can ask everyone to apart from
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the panels and people speaking to to stay on mute just so that we can keep background noise and things to um to a
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minimum and we're really keen for for this afternoon session to be as interactive
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as um as possible we really want to hear from you so we're going to do this in two ways and firstly we're going to use the chat
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function on zoom and where you can share your thoughts uh any kind of comments in terms of in
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terms of what we're talking about and a network perhaps with other other participants on the course please do use the chat function and to
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do that um in terms of questions if you want to submit questions for our panel
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and then please can we ask that you use the q a function to do that so that's where we're going to be and keeping an eye on your questions
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that you're submitting and and we'll uh we'll get to as many of those hopefully this afternoon as we
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possibly can and so yes so and then in terms of recording it will be available
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um in about two working days um if you're keen to kind of have a copy of the recording and and
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just one thing i'll mention again at the end but um we will be this is the first sort of online and
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volunteer event we've run uh and certainly in in the post-covered world
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so and we're really keen to build on this session and run more similar sessions and hopefully a bit of a mixture of online
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and physical events as well as things open up a bit more and so we're really really keen to hear your thoughts
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um about this about today's session and anything that you would like to see in the future in terms of us being able to bring
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volunteers together hear from other hear from volunteers and people who've benefited from our programs
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and and how we can do more to kind of support you as a community and and really kind of support that so
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and so that's sort of the admin for the day and i will stop showing my screen now
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and then we can get to the exciting part of the day where we get to introduce our panel so and so in a moment i'm going to ask
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each of our panel members to introduce themselves and tell us a little bit more about what they do
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and the first panelists i'm going to tell you about a bit about the each program and they they support as
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well just to kind of start to give you a bit of an insight and what you'll see in the chat is we will be sharing links
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and url links within there in terms of each of the programs that we mentioned so so there's some way you can go for
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further information and of course if you've got questions then and then that's what this afternoon
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is for and so i'm delighted to firstly introduce and sarah driver who is one of our enterprise advisors
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and the enterprise advisor program is something we we work on with the careers and enterprise company and it's a way that
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you can volunteer and be matched with a local secondary school and that includes special educational needs schools as well as and people
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referral units and you can be matched with the school and work directly with their leadership team senior leadership team
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to help them develop their career strategy so if i could just ask sarah to and to
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tell us a little bit more about what she does and how she got involved thank you okay thank you thanks jamila um yeah so i'm
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sarah um i have um about 20 years experience in hr
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various sectors and organizations i stepped back from full-time employment in around sort of 2012
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2013 and to concentrate on working independently as a coach but also i decided at that
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time that i wanted to devote a significant amount of time to to volunteering and
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and giving back where i could um so about eight years ago um i started
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volunteering festival with the prince's trust so another organization um and that volunteering work continues
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today so i work directly with with young people for the trust um helping them into employment
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self-employment developing skills um as well as a range of other work um
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so um that has kept me busy um over the last couple of years in the last year in particular
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and then in addition to my work with the trust about four years ago now i came across
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the um cipd recruitment campaign um for enterprise advisors
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and i looked into it researched into this new partnership between the cipd and the careers and enterprise company
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and decided that it's something that i was really really interested in really keen to do from the point of view
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of um gaining some experience working with the education sector with leadership teams within the
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education sector and hopefully impacting the futures of young people students in
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schools um through the work that we would be doing together around careers education
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and career strategy and it sort of tapped into my interest in in career coaching as well
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so um yeah so for the last four years alongside the volunteering with the prince's trust
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i've been working with two special educational needs schools in the greater manchester area
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working closely with them to help them to develop their career strategy and
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careers program and very specifically to find ways to increase engagement and encounters with
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employers and with workplaces with a view to improving the the future
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prospects of young people and in this case uh particularly young people with special educational needs
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learning disabilities or perhaps physical disabilities so yeah that's that's what i've been
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doing thank you sir thank you and and
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i'm delighted to introduce our second member of the panel tim poynter who is a volunteer on our
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aspiring hr directors program um and this program has been running
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fully for a couple of years now and and we're about to start on the fifth cohort and this was really brought
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about to address and sort of like representation of people from ethnic minority
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backgrounds at hr director level and it's a structured mentoring program and i'm really aimed at supporting those
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who are maybe two to three years away from being ready for a hr director role and and i'm delighted to welcome tim to
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our panel so tim if you could tell us a little bit more about what you do and got involved thank you thank you
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very much yeah i'm uh tim poynter i'm the chro of the global brand agency caa gbg which stands
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for creative artist agency a global brands group and i've had
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a rather interesting career in in hr it's um taking me around the world and back so i have lived and worked in asia
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pacific based in sydney for five years i've been based in the in the us um and i've largely been focused on a
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big branded business for well probably more years than i care to count um and uh the uh aspiring hrd's program
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was first piloted in 2015 and i was on uh asked to be one of the
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the mentors as as part of that i've been engaged ever since i was at the time i was studying for a
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coaching qualification at ashbridge and it you know really um enabled me to
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bring together both the the the work that i was doing in terms of my own learning and also my own experience for the benefit
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of the the mentees that were on the program and in terms of my volunteering
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experience i've been involved with several different uh programs i've worked with on the teach first
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program for those who uh know that fantastic uh programmer and i
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work as a volunteer to uh support the the coaches within that program gain the
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skills to uh support the teachers going into the classroom for the first time as part of
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that program and have also in his previous incarnation was a volunteer on the
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steering committee for engage for success um and it's you know i think
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this whole conversation is fascinating i think the what's happened over the last 16 months
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and the way that we have had a different connection to our communities a different appreciation
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of the services that um that perhaps we've taken for granted uh in
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the past it's really chat you know particularly our relationship with the nhs i think has really made um so many
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people reflect as to how they can um you know perhaps engage with different
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um with different groups and find different ways to uh giving back to a broader society so
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looking forward to the conversation thank you tim um and now i'm delighted
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to introduce our third panelist so um guy berry is one of our volunteers who took part as
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part of our covered response programs last year so and so we were in a couple of time
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limited programs um in 2020 and it's about the social impact covered response um and this was once providing hr
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mentoring to charities who perhaps either had very very limited or no um or no hr professionals within their
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organization and to really support them and help them navigate their way through the pandemic and with hr support
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to help them navigate some of those challenges that that came up and there's a link being shared just to give you a bit more
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information into some of the other things that we did as part of our paper response so yes so guys if you could
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um introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more about what you do and how you get involved
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okay thank you jamila um my name's guy berry um i was previously employed within
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the local authority sector i worked for i think it was six of the local authorities in the greater manchester
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area um over a 30-year period up to december 2014 when fortunately i was i
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was able to take early retirement as well as a background in public sector hr and also prior to
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that work within retailing um in a an hr development role
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um after uh early retirement i decided that i wanted to take a gap
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year so i took a gap year and the gap year that i never had um they didn't have them they weren't
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invented when when i finished college but um and i went to work
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i went to the live should i say within the the usa for part of the year i returned from the
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u.s i mean retired in december 14 i returned from the usa mid-15
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and i started to look for some volunteering opportunities even though i had taken early retirement
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and i had planned for retirement i hadn't planned for a life i mean i don't play golf but i haven't planned for a life of golfing
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uh and and doing in gardening and doing all the other things that conventionally um he's supposed to do in
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retirement and and at that stage i decided that i wanted to do something different i
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wanted to do something outside of the field that i'd had worked in um
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as part of my career so i actually trained as an assessor with the citizens advice bureau
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and that was uh well it was extremely rewarding mainly
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because um you didn't know when you went in as as the you know the assessor on duty
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what was going to hit you during the day so i had you know all sorts of issues from people who are facing eviction uh to
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individuals who are being pursued for tax arrears uh you know also all sorts of
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difficulties and issues um that i was i was faced with
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and i was also and that was something which you know i was proactive about that i took the opportunity to apply for and
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went in as an assessor and trained i then returned back to the usa and it
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was whilst i was out in the usa that was contacted by the former chief executive that i'd worked for within
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local authority he had also retired from his role as the chief executive but he'd taken on a role
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as chairman with the east lancashire railway uh which is the heritage railway it's it's a charity
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um so he's taking on the role as chairman with with the the company and they were facing
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a particularly difficult uh hr challenge uh the sort of hr challenge that they
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they hadn't faced before and uh and i was tapped on the shoulder um mike actually tracked me down in america
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uh and asked me whether i would i would work with them uh and and manage them navigate them
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through this particularly difficult uh hr uh problem that was in 2016 and
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to date i'm still working with east lax railway uh i've spent five years now with the railway uh
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working with them and you know more lately on on covid related issues
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i'm going to come on to that later as as part of a presentation um
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as as well as working with east lancashire railway and and perhaps this is my introduction into
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how i got into charity mentoring um post pandemic
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um or post lockdown should i say what what i started to do was i started to feel as
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though i needed to do something i needed something to occupy my time something to give me structure
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something really to contribute to my well-being and that's when i came across the uh the program that cipd are currently
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running the charity mentors program and i have uh to date i've actually
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mentioned three different individuals and those are described in the case study but i'll i'll perhaps come on to
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that uh and talk about it a little bit later um as a program i think it was
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as tim have said it's it's i think well you know tim and sarah said it's about actually
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coming back it's about giving something back it's about making a contribution and for me it was about
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something which would assist with my own well-being and my own ability to cope with with with with
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lockdown and everything that pandemic threw at us um so i've found it particularly
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valuable and i've really enjoyed working with each of the very different uh mentees that
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i've worked with over the past probably nine months or so
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thank you and i think yeah that's a really interesting point around well-being and hopefully through the
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discussion later a little bit more um and last but
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definitely not least uh really pleased to introduce um chloe taylor who is a mentee and so someone who has
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benefited from some of our volunteers support and on the steps ahead
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mentoring program and which we um refreshed and we launched back in october so it's a program that's
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been around for quite a while but it's uh we sort of reshaped and refreshed it back in october and to make sure it was kind of fit for
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person terms of um the response needs and reduce the pandemic
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and i'm really this is a mentoring program that's really focused on um on encouraging crpd members to
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to volunteer to provide mentoring to job seekers with a focus on young people aged 18 to 24 and also
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parents and carers who may have had a gap in employment and who are looking to try and re-enter the workplace
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and so it's a manchester book around six meet-ups and and really with the aim of helping
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helping someone get back into work or start out in their career and so yes so chloe if you could tell us a
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little bit more about about yourself and how you got him involved thank you thank you jamila and
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hello everyone that's on the webinar uh yeah so i'm chloe um i think
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the way that i got involved starts back um with my degree that i uh i took a few years ago
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which was sociology and criminology and as part of that i i did a placement um which was
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a business administration and but it was focused on a workforce action group and so that
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inspired a journey into hr and so i did a hr masters that finished in
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september so i did my dissertation in the first lockdown and um finishing that i faced the
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catch-22 situation along with a lot of other people and looking for employment
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in a really really tough market um i joined the steps ahead program in november and um i had a mentor there
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uh jessica who helped me all the way through until march and yeah so i'm definitely a beneficiary
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of the program because in march i secured employment as a hr administrator at the university of warwick
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and so it's definitely really really benefited me i'm 23 years old and i was 23 at the
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time of starting uh the program so i was on the higher end of the spectrum but luckily uh made the cut
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and so yeah good to be here and to talk about my experience as well
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brilliant and thank you to and to all our panelists for joining us this afternoon and and hopefully we're going to have some
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really good discussions so um so coming onto my first first question
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for the panel and just to remind everyone i do encourage you to submit questions through the q a so hopefully we can get to as many of those
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as we as we can over the discussion and we're coming to my first sort of question for the panel what was it that
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made you i think some i think you talked a little bit about this but what was it what was it made you want to volunteer in the
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first place so if i come to sarah first yeah i think probably like many
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volunteers it's just it's just in my values and my personal values um
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i think i think what took me into hr way back was was that helper um driver so so wanting
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to help people at a very sort of basic level um and then extending that i think um
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i think as i sort of came towards the end of my kind of active career in hr was it was wanting to give back it
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was it was really wanting to give back um i think they could sending the ladder back down wherever i could
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and just a huge interest um particularly in working with young people so young people a bit like chloe's she's
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just described coming through and and and just using the experience
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and and knowledge that i've gained to to support young people
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in various ways in various capacities so i think um uh just within me is is that really
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strong driver so it's kind of that and and it's been strengthened um massively
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over the last 15 months you know it was a strong desire over the last eight years and and the
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more i've been involved with volunteering and with voluntary organizations and seeing the power of the work that they do and the direct
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impact on on lives and witnessing you know the sort of transformations that that can
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take place but given you know everything that we're all going through over the last
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15 months the way the world is changing in general the additional challenges of covid um for each
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generation um but for me i guess i'm focusing on the younger generation and the hit that it's taking in education
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before young people even get into the workplace um so for for all those reasons i feel
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really passionate about it um and um this might be a question you come on to later but i've just
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experienced so many sort of personal rewards and amazing connections through the work that i've been doing
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thank you and tim would you like to share your thoughts around that as well
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i think it's a um the ability just to just to share um and you know i'm very fortunate
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in my in my day job i you know lead a leader a global hr team so you know my team are based
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across uh shanghai seoul hong kong la new york and london and therefore there's a huge breadth of
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experience and culture and time zones legislations and all kinds of interesting things that
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that come with all of that so the ability to just share some of that greater context
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particularly for those who are aspiring to have international or global roles who are
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i'm thinking about where they are in their careers and the different you know with it's a it's
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a it's a cliche with a cliche that many people will recognize you know it's not a career ladder um you know there are no linear moves
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here it's um yeah it's much more of a a climbing frame when you're clambering from side to side and picking up
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experience and finding different um uh different understandings of the organizations in
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which we um in which we work and so to you know so to bring some of that
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uh experience and you know ask some be curious you know ask some um ask some questions that will
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hopefully give individuals the chance to go away reflect um and then come back and make
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commitments not to me but to themselves as to what they're going to put into action as a result of the conversation
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that we've had that's what's really fascinating yeah thank you tim and guy you kind of
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talked a little bit about that in the intensive in terms of what um more in terms of what drove you to volunteer and his
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pandemic and wanting to have that kind of structure and i guess um one of the questions um i had was
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around you know you talked a bit about and you know for your well-being that it was it
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was really important and i just wondered if you had any more to say around what you've gained
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kind of personally as a volunteer what's what's been the games for you in terms of whether that's learnings or whether
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that's in terms of supporting your your own well-being or the other things that might have been
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unexpected uh yes i mean i did focus on well-being because that was
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um i i did feel as though i needed to do something which would uh enhance or improve my my resilience
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um i like to think and and and history will bear me out i'm quite a
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resilient individual and i can cope with change and i can cope with difficult situations uh but
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lockdown for me was particularly challenging um and and and and it did have
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uh an adverse impact on me and initially i felt as though uh everything
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was was fine because i ironically enough there was actually an increased demand
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from the east lancashire railway um at the time they'd actually uh placed
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their uh well they were in the process of placing their staff on furlough uh and literally from us from a standing
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start uh because i i've never even heard the word i mean i probably had but in the way that it's
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used now i've not not heard the term so i very quickly and and with the
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assistance of cipd through the the resources that you developed um i like to think i became the
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the expert the in-house expert on on the coronavirus job retention scheme uh
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and i assisted uh eastlake's railway through that we then went through a process of of
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identity identifying potential redundancies and went through that uh and that's when things came to a halt
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and that's when um i suddenly i i felt as i was brought up very sharply
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uh because the structure and the contribution i was making and what i
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was doing and my depth basically my daily activities against the backdrop of um of lockdown
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just ended and it was a little bit like a cliff edge and so i i did
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see uh volunteering as an opportunity to to to give back i did see it as an
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opportunity to assist me so there were you know it wasn't just the the payback in terms of
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uh assisting and working with uh well in this case with with charities that don't have uh any
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in-house capacity uh within hr uh but it was also about networking it was about getting
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involved with with individuals it was about forming you know work work-based relationships again with
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with those people um so that was definitely one of the things that i got out of it
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um i was very fortunate i think this is you know this is probably um an unintended
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benefit you know it was just something that happened i was very fortunate if i was the first um
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organization that i work with they actually requested that i mentor a second manager within
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the organization which for me was [Music]
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i mean i'm not particularly needy but at the time i needed some reassurance and some feedback so
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that indirectly was some feedback well if they wanted me to mentor a second
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uh manager within the organization then i must have been doing something right with the first one
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and then there must have there must have been a sense that i was adding some value when i was contributing
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and i was you know i was injecting some hr capacity into that organization so that in a sense was was um it was it
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gave me the feedback that i needed and it gave me some of the additional confidence and then the conversations that i had
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with the individuals because you do have these conversations where people that you know those people that
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you are acting as a a mentor to um you will see and i did start to
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see particularly with one individual i saw a visible change in uh and it was a
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physical change because this this particular individual probably far worse than i was not coping
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well with lockdown it was against a backdrop of a number of other personal issues and i actually saw
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as a result of the work that i was doing i saw a change in that individual both
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in terms of confidence but also in terms of of their outlook um so i think
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those are things that i got from it and and definitely it has been a very positive
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experience for me and it's one i would recommend to to anyone
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thanks guys and if i could come to chloe's you're coming from a slightly different perspective somebody and who's benefited from
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from having that and volunteer support and so just in terms of that how could
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you sort of share a bit more about how your how volunteer has impacted you obviously you've heard the great news that you
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gotta you've got a job at the end of interview mentoring but is there any other things that you would share in terms of what you felt that
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um you gained from from that experience and and did you share that with your with your mentor as well yeah i think um
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one of the other side impacts of gaining the job is you've gained um a network in into the
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hr industry so i now have that contact and i feel comfortable in in seeking advice from them in the
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future um and and it was it was a two two-way street we've learned a lot from each other
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and i think um another part is that they're a bit of a role model and
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they kind of inspire me to want to kind of get involved in volunteering as well because it's it's a place where you learn a lot
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so i think yeah again saying that they've learned something from the experience of mentoring um and i've gained a lot from
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being a mentee and it's it's part of the experience of
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general recruitment that's what the whole program was for so taking that forward into the next time that i go through a recruitment process
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and and again like i said it's that confidence and believing in myself which i gained from that um so
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just knowing that i had a stranger to begin with rooting for me is really really good for a mental state
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um and just general kind of like structure um when you're out of work
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um knowing that you're kind of going to be regularly reporting to someone just gives you a bit of structure in terms of how you go about things and
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it's it's it's a long line of those values that you can take forward and apply to to future um recruitment processes uh so
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it's everything really it's it's the work front um in inspiring another hr professional and to kind of
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pursue a similar line or different line if they want to get into something completely different but it's just kind of inspiring that uh
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community outreach which which was really really beneficial for me yeah and i think that's a really key
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thing isn't it with um is through through some of our programs the skills that people professionals have and
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how that can impact so many and whether individuals or organizations in terms of
31:27
content you know that skill set is really to me is quite unique in terms of the position that you hold that the professionals hold
31:34
their kind of knowledge you have next expertise and in terms of whether you're supporting someone to try and get that first job or
31:40
whether you're providing that direct support and to a school leadership team and if i could come to you sir it's a bit of a different slightly different
31:46
type of and volunteering that you do with schools it's it's less mentally you're
31:51
working directly with the leadership teams and i just wondered if you could say a bit more of about what you've perhaps learned or the
31:58
impact that you've seen as a result of your um involvement with those with the two schools that you talked about earlier
32:05
what are the kind of key things for you yeah it's um it's been a real real journey um it's
32:11
quite an overused phrase um so so four four years in now with with them with the first school i started working
32:18
with and about two years with the second school that i took on um so um yeah we we've sort of
32:25
we've gone from a place where um where the whole sort of careers strategy
32:31
that the government were looking for schools to to transition into to boost the careers curriculum and
32:37
careers activity was very new at that time so it was new into schools um so i think when i when i started out
32:45
we were almost we went we weren't exactly starting from scratch because um the schools were sort of
32:51
doing things in their own way um they were organizing work experience they had you know some uh connections with employers in in
33:00
but in quite patchy ways and in ways that was um quite unstrategic that is a word and
33:06
wasn't sort of recorded or measured so along came this whole new approach
33:11
that the schools were required to um to take on and to follow to really
33:17
boost um careers education significantly and to increase the whole way or improve
33:24
the whole way of that we're educating young people as they go through the education system and
33:30
and start to look at entering the workplace to give them much more sort of um understanding of the skills that
33:36
required and the options to increase aspiration um
33:42
among schools particularly in the more challenged schools more challenging uh areas that are more sort of
33:47
challenged so um a lot going on um it's probably important just to say that the work that
33:53
enterprises do across the country takes place um in secondary schools
33:58
and that includes um i think there's over a thousand special educational needs schools um like the ones i'm working with it
34:05
also includes people referral units so you have enterprise advisors who are partnered with uh with with the crews
34:12
um and are making you know a huge difference there and also enterprise advisors are
34:17
partnered in in colleges as well so as i say i think when i started out
34:23
it was all very new um and so it's been quite a journey it's been quite a big process of change
34:29
management um so helping to help the um careers leader
34:37
who's my sort of main point of contact in each school and part of the senior leadership team
34:43
to understand what it's all about to understand this new target framework that they're working towards and to start to
34:51
make a transition from what they were previously doing or currently doing into this this new approach and to map
34:58
it against this new um approach against the gatsby benchmarks
35:03
and to um and and to um extend careers education so it's
35:08
starting much earlier on in the curriculum earlier key stages to broaden it and and really as i say i think an
35:15
enterprise advisor a key part of their role is to tap into their own professional network
35:21
um and perhaps into their own businesses many enterprise advisors are doing full-time jobs and are able to kind of
35:28
open that network into schools their own organizations or their own businesses
35:33
but to really extend the connections that schools and education have with employers so young people
35:41
are having much more direct contact and that's sort of based on the principle that young person who has four
35:47
or more um meaningful encounters with an employer is 86 less likely to end up not
35:55
in education employment or training when they leave schools that's the sort of the principle that we're working around
36:02
um so uh i'm not sure if i'm rambling or asking you a question but it's it's been a bit been a journey and
36:08
helping them to understand helping them to really get started helping them to monitor helping them to
36:13
record and extending those connections extending the activity into new areas so
36:20
really helping them into digital media skills for example making connections with employers there
36:26
um uh understanding helping them to increase their understanding of the labour market both locally as well as
36:32
nationally and of course right now um they're um you know we're in a very
36:38
complicated fast changing labor market situation where we've got
36:43
you know some jobs and sectors sort of massively hit and a lot of those sectors um were sectors
36:49
that young people would move into and often start out in as well as other sectors that are crying out for
36:56
skills the health and social care sector so it's really bringing all of that that sort of knowledge understanding
37:02
and skills um to work with um work with the careers leader work with
37:09
the senior leadership team so um uh establishing relationships with head teachers with governors
37:16
um i've also had connections with um with teaching staff so kind of one-to-one support there and running
37:23
some sessions for teachers around employability parents and also the young the young
37:28
people themselves um so quite yeah quite significantly have you seen
37:33
have you seen a kind of impact from some of that work that you've done what's if you could name one thing
37:38
yeah real kind of you know we're making progress yeah so but very very briefly um to
37:45
sort of evidence that progress that's being made and we audit the schools so part of our regular work with the
37:52
schools is to complete a um an audit of their progress against these eight new benchmarks that working
37:58
towards so the two schools that i've i've been working with have either met a hundred percent of those eight
38:05
benchmarks so they've fully met them or are very close to meeting um the the
38:10
benchmarks and the criteria that they need to get to to evidence good careers so there's that but on on a more
38:16
personal level um up until a year ago when we sort of had to stop going into schools for the time being
38:22
it's just that it's just being there and watching the careers activity ramp up and you know watching
38:27
encounters getting employers in schools and witnessing um young people sort of getting the
38:32
opportunity to talk to pilots from easyjet or people that are doing creative media criticism just watching their eyes light
38:39
up so you know it's evidenced in all sorts of ways i think you think so i think he was
38:45
brought up some really important points around around some of the challenges as well depending on the volunteering that
38:51
you're doing so we'll see the impact that you want to make but also sometimes um you know it takes it can take a bit of
38:57
time to get there and i just wanted to come to tim in terms of um the mentoring that you've been doing
39:03
through the aspiring hr directs program and um and one like kind of any
39:08
any learning similar to to the question posted to guy and sarah any learnings that perhaps have been unexpected
39:15
but also what you think might be some of the challenges in terms of in terms of the style of mentoring that you're doing and particularly because
39:21
you're trying to get people into those senior or help them on their journey to those senior level roles any
39:27
challenges that you've experienced i think so often these questions are very very contextual it's it's so much
39:34
about the organization in which the um which the person is uh is working and
39:39
so you know the purpose um strategy and the operational plan within that business and understanding
39:46
how they can uh progress that but then it's that it's that
39:52
it's that step from being a technical expert into being a business leader and you know this i'm going to fall into
39:59
so many cliches right now but but it's that you know that the all of those pieces about you know what got you here won't get you
40:06
there you know you have to understand what you're going to stop doing as you go into a more senior role
40:12
and what new habits you're going to adopt how you're going to adapt your language
40:19
what metrics you're going to be focused on what presence you want to project when
40:24
you click cliche alert get that seat at the table which i know is a so you know it's something we talk about
40:30
probably too much nature um and all of those pieces and
40:36
understanding where there's comfort and discomfort around each of those shifts for the individual now as a
40:43
mentor you're not in you're not in the room so it's what you're also seeking to do
40:50
is then connect the individual with um who is actually seeking to
40:56
champion their success within the organization who is going to give them feedback as to
41:01
how they came across how their preparation delivered success how they were in the moment with an unexpected question
41:07
et cetera et cetera so that you you know you creating the circumstances for um which enable success because they're
41:14
getting real-time feedback in their organization and then sometimes the mentoring process
41:21
is a bit of a decompression session you know you sort of take all of that away and for the first time you have
41:28
you know an hour in which the focus is just on you nothing else
41:34
and all of the questions are about what did you learn what were you feeling how did that how
41:42
what was that experience like how were you reading the room were you talking for too long
41:48
too short wrong point wrong pitch wrong timing what was the preparation that you did in
41:53
advance all of these pieces coming together how do you follow up in the right way so it's really
41:59
providing that sounding board and asking questions that perhaps the individual hadn't got to yet in their
42:06
own reflection and then giving them those additional um additional insights
42:12
so it's it's that process but because it's mentoring and not coaching then it's also getting into the um
42:19
some of the the details of you know their comfort with the annual report their ability to uh
42:26
run through a p l um there's true that true mix of business understanding
42:32
so they can speak fluently about any part of the business operations matched with their commercial acumen how
42:39
they're demonstrating that the projects that they're working on are really driving business success so
42:45
it's all of those pieces kind of um that kind of comes together and it's completely led by the by the
42:52
individual it's their time solely about them um and therefore they can bring
42:58
anything into that conversation which is in service of um meeting their aspiration
43:04
to progress in their hr career thank you tim i think it's a really good point i think chloe you sort of said it
43:11
perfectly as well i think the roles that you will play in terms of your volunteer roles as you're really in that person's corner you know you're that
43:18
kind of sounding board and you know perhaps they can have the conversations that maybe in a work structure they might feel less
43:24
comfortable but they've got that they've got you as a sort of champion for them in terms of in terms of what
43:29
they're trying to achieve and i think the value of that is is really um you know really can't be underestimated
43:35
i want to make sure we've got um about 15 minutes left for the panel discussion and i want to make sure that we come to
43:41
some of the questions and people have been putting forward which is great that and
43:46
a few questions forward so um and this one probably applies um to everyone where did it go so um
43:54
yes so one of the one of the questions is what are the panel's thoughts on remote volunteering versus face to
44:00
face and i guess this is acknowledging the impacts the pandemic has had on some of the volunteering in terms of there's less of
44:06
that opportunity to to do what you do and face to face so and so god if i
44:12
could come to you first in terms of i guess yours was slightly different because it was a pandemic and driven program but is there anything
44:19
that you want to share in terms of some of those challenges with it being remote or whether actually there's and there's things that
44:26
have been gained or what's been what's different i i think in terms of my thoughts on
44:31
remote volunteering um my natural inclination and i think i suspect i'm not alone in this is that
44:38
i prefer to meet face to face um and i and i think in a in a mentoring relationship
44:44
um i still believe that that's important um perhaps because i'd i'd had prior
44:51
experience of remote support and remote volunteering because i think i talked earlier about
44:56
the work that i'd done with the east lancashire railway uh and i'd i've been doing that work when i
45:02
was based in the united states and and you know they the managers are based in
45:07
lancashire and and so i was able either because we'd got you know the
45:13
time difference and it was an enquiry and then i responded to it but it wasn't in real time or
45:19
occasionally we we did have you know whatsapp uh conversations um and this result it was again prior to
45:27
zoom and ms teams and everything that we now take for granted um so i did have some experience in in
45:34
that area um and i think from really from the outset from from when i
45:41
was first introduced to my uh the first individual that i formed a
45:46
mentoring relationship with um because i sort of set the pace
45:51
but i said well i was i was open yes we could we could meet by zoom we could meet on ms teams
45:57
we could face time we could phone you know we could do it over the phone and so i left it largely in their hands
46:04
um everybody wanted wanted zoom um and and i've got to say that um
46:12
having become you know i think there was the the technical challenge because again i know i mean i'm not a technophobe but
46:20
i had no experience in that area so initially setting up the meeting and setting up the detail
46:26
sending out the invitations was all new um but it worked and um
46:34
and i i didn't see any any any difficulty i mean i have in in the later
46:41
or the latest um relationship mentoring relationship that
46:46
i've got i've actually met with the individual in person um which has been you know
46:52
that that in itself is you know that that's been a step forward but i think in terms of um the challenges i
47:00
i don't see any i think that the pandemic and our response
47:06
and and the way that we you know businesses had to adapt to that uh and the way that zoom and ms
47:12
teams and everything else is just part of our daily life um it's it's it's the new normal
47:19
um and maybe um if things were different maybe we would want to meet face-to-face and maybe uh there might be
47:26
some advantages to to doing that but i don't see uh remote mentoring um
47:33
in any way being you know the poor relation um i think it helps and certainly if you're doing it globally
47:39
you know sims work for example um you know it it's a must it's it's a
47:44
given and i think that's actually in some ways
47:50
what we've found through some of our programs it can allow more connections sometimes because location isn't such a
47:55
it's in such a barrier and chloe can i come to you on that from that point actually because i see you're somebody who is who has received
48:02
um frontier support and during during the pandemic and um was that all
48:08
did that all happen remotely and were there any sort did you experience any challenges with that or gains what
48:14
what would you do what your thoughts are on that yeah and so my opinion on that um
48:20
because it's all i've known um in terms of experiencing um a volunteer mentor um and and doing it all um
48:29
remote um for me it was almost essential um because we were going through a
48:35
process where i need to learn how to do online interviews because that was just the way it was going to have to be
48:42
um so so really really useful there i'd never had to do an interview in that way before it would
48:49
have been really really nice to just meet for coffee it's it's a bit of a different setting we would have maybe talked more
48:55
because i think you do hold back uh when when it's when it's remote like this it's just
49:02
a different different atmosphere um but i don't think it impeded um anything that i couldn't
49:08
have learned more you know i was made to feel so comfortable i could ask any questions
49:13
what i also find useful about remote is is that you build that um immediate chat over over emails and you
49:20
know you can kind of fire questions away whereas if you kind of meet in person i think you feel like you have to save
49:25
it all for that meeting when you go to meet in person whereas if it's kind of like instant messaging either via email or if you
49:32
have a contact number that's really helpful because you can get um information fed back to you a lot
49:37
quicker um and and again i just want to reiterate the fact that it is just the future now and things are going
49:44
to work this way people are going to work from home so i think it's really really essential to
49:49
in the future if people were going to go back to meeting face-to-face um still integrating
49:54
um a lot of the relationship um over yeah zoom teams just just to get
50:01
used to it and i think they're really really good platforms and i use them daily now and i really enjoy the functionality
50:07
um and and to have started it from the mentoring just gave me a really really good step
50:13
in the right direction for using it
50:19
i haven't controlled my meeting and yeah so that kind of brings me on to another of
50:25
pandemic related but um and could come to tim first but has has the the pandemic um in any way and
50:33
obviously you've been involved in volunteering for some time but has it in any way changed your motivations or
50:38
views of volunteering and and has anything changed in that respect or have you seen that change in other
50:43
people yeah i think i sort of touched this the very start didn't know by talks about
50:49
the you know there are we are going to it will be very
50:54
interesting to see how how how this plays out i think we're going to be so careful talking about um uh hybrid working and you know sort
51:02
of you know very excitable articles talking about the death of the office and all that kind of stuff
51:08
um uh because you know there are so many roles that you know weren't in office in the first place you know if you're
51:13
working in the um in the you know if you're dealing with waste or you're dealing with
51:19
uh electricity or or you're in a hospital you are not going to you know be doing that that surgical procedure from home
51:27
um you know there are some things so you are still going to be going to the workplace um
51:33
and it's um you know and just touching on that point you know i've in i've been fortunate to do uh a fair
51:40
amount of of um of coaching sort of in addition to the mentoring program that we're talking about uh
51:45
today and one of my coaches was in the construction industry and to actually go on site with her
51:52
and to have as i said context is queen you know you actually go into that environment and
51:57
you see the working environment that someone's in you've got the hard hat the heart out and the boots and the hive
52:03
is and it really enables you to do a better job so i think you know wherever possible
52:10
you're seeking to get that um that that context because it makes you sharper in your role both in in coaching
52:17
and mentoring um so i think that's you know uh that's critical um in terms of the the overall
52:24
opportunity with um uh with volunteering i think there has been for a lot of people there
52:31
has been a shift with their relationship because they've been on furlough because they um
52:36
because they've been under lockdown because they've been uh asked to work from home whatever the situation is it's a different
52:43
relationship with the local community and it's also been a forced period of reflection for so many
52:50
people to question our own purpose our own drive and motivations
52:59
and the way that we think about our society and the and the community um in all
53:05
different definitions of community um in which we work and i think that we've seen that with um
53:13
a a huge shift with sort of many you know local organizations that people will recognize you know people volunteering
53:19
with food banks or working with age concern connecting with hospices or the nhs getting involved with you know ptas
53:27
and guides and all all of that kind of piece and i think what's so important
53:32
is alongside all of the volunteering opportunities it's it's just critical that there's
53:38
always the right training that we are setting people up for success and i think that's what's been
53:43
fantastic about the uh aspiring hrd's mentoring program because um you know for those of us that
53:50
are trained coaches that's been then furthered by the work that uh david clutterbuck clutterbuckers
53:56
has then um led in advancing um our um our skills and i see that in
54:02
community groups as well i've been uh this is a complete uh um uh
54:07
sideswerve but but i i uh volunteer coaching kids football on saturday morning done that the last
54:13
six years and you don't you can't just turn up and do these things you know you you go through your safeguarding course
54:20
and your first aid course and your introductory and your level 1 fa your dbs checks all of those pieces
54:27
so it's not just that you rock up and do something it's that you'll really have the structure the governance
54:32
the support and the knowledge so that you do things in the best way
54:37
for those that you're that you have that desire and calling to support but also that you know yourself you're
54:43
doing it in the most professional way thank you tim that's a really great hand
54:50
answer um okay so we've got uh a few a few more minutes for and questions and lots of great
54:57
questions coming through and in the chat so sarah if i could come and
55:02
to you what would you say to anyone who is who is considering uh volunteering
55:07
but perhaps um obviously everyone's here who's heard you will speak today but what would you say to anyone who's considering
55:13
volunteering but perhaps a bit nervous or unsure about the support they can and they can give
55:19
yeah i am so so one of the first things i think tim all of the points that he made there
55:25
were really um valuable but particularly i think that the points that he mentioned at the end
55:32
um which um underlines all that volunteering entails exactly as he said actually
55:37
it's important to understand that you don't just rock up and do it um for any kind of organization on a
55:44
on the smaller ones or the larger organizations so there'll be all sorts of training involved
55:50
safeguarding training if you're working with young people rule specific training you know if you join as an enterprise advisor with the
55:57
cruise and enterprise company they've got a fantastic range of induction training and resources now
56:03
so even um getting started it requires a commitment so um in terms of of any advice i could
56:10
give is first of all and off the back of you know kind of listening to those of us today that are doing it
56:17
and and thinking all of that through um uh sort of really thinking about it it
56:22
is a commitment um it does require time and attention to do
56:27
it really well to do it really thoroughly and to do it really professionally so and so so think hard about it um
56:34
um and as i say you know what you will find is is in many volunteering opportunities
56:40
there will be quite rigorous training at the beginning to help get you started and get you going um what other buzz
56:47
other than that once you've given it the thought and sort of thought about um how much you can commit what you think
56:53
you can bring what you're hoping to to get back from doing it you know what of your own kind of values one of the
56:59
things that most important to you that that it will hit once you've thought about all of those things
57:05
and thought about where you can connect um most usefully is is really um to research the options
57:13
research the the the organizations offer volunteering opportunities and then just just get started get started
57:20
perhaps in a small way so don't over commit at the beginning don't try to you know sign up to everything perhaps
57:25
smart starting us in a small way and and and just get going and and
57:30
try it and and test it out um and you know i think as people are hearing from all of us that have been
57:36
doing it for some time the chances are that you will um i hope will really enjoy it find it
57:43
incredibly rewarding um and that you'll you'll get a lot back from doing it so
57:49
i hope that helps yeah that definitely helps and sarah just a quick question in terms of um the commitment what have
57:55
you what have you found that you have to commit per week for your enterprise as well well it's a bit like you know how long
58:02
is a piece of string i think essentially what what the uh what the the cruise enterprise um say is that if you're joining as an
58:10
enterprise advisor they're looking for a minimum of of one to five hours of your time a month and at least
58:17
one one meeting and at the moment of course this is all virtual um and some of it may stay virtual at
58:23
least one meeting with the school that you work with per half term so as a minimum that's that's what you need to be prepared for
58:30
um as i found though particularly in the early stages of of getting to grips with it or getting
58:36
to know people i ended up sort of um committing more more time than that but that was because i
58:41
was able to because i i want to so you sort of got two answers there you've got the the minimum
58:47
requirements um for an enterprise advisor but i think i don't know whether
58:52
you know tim and guy will agree it's it's often as i say how you know how long's a piece
58:58
of string how how far do you want to take things how far do you want to to go with things
59:04
but the good thing about volunteering is that you should always be in control of it and that's one of the things that
59:09
really works for me guy mentioned at the beginning along with all the altruistic side of it actually
59:14
it allows me to continue to work as part of an organization or two organizations connected with others but
59:21
to be in control of my time and and how and when i do that um so yeah i
59:27
hope that helps thanks that's a really really important point and if i could just come to um guys well if you um if you had any
59:35
advice that you would give somebody who's thinking about volunteering or perhaps a little bit unsure what would be your
59:42
couple of top tips my top tips i think um for me
59:48
the first question that you should ask yourself is what's your motivation why why are you um why are you
59:54
considering this you know what what are you looking to gain from it um what value can you add um
1:00:01
so i i think particularly in in the work that i was doing i was it wasn't just about volunteering for
1:00:07
volunteering sakes um i yeah that's you know it might be an altruistic motive but um
1:00:15
it wasn't for me that wasn't what wasn't uh appropriate i needed to volunteer within an area that i felt comfortable
1:00:21
in in an area that i could add value in and that was all part of the questioning um so it is about you know why am i
1:00:28
doing this i think the other thing and i think sarah has mentioned this is is making time outside of the
1:00:34
the the contact um you know in terms of the mentoring sessions that they do there is
1:00:40
a lot of time outside of the volunteering um that i think for me has been given over to research
1:00:46
to fact-finding um and and you know whilst i've been doing
1:00:52
the volunteer the the mentoring the online mentoring that's generally been followed up by a note
1:01:00
um and what i've tried to do is identify other resources and signpost people
1:01:07
and and that demands some of your time um unfortunately i actually i enjoy that
1:01:13
i enjoy fact finding i enjoy looking for things researching and so that meets the need in me if i
1:01:21
didn't enjoy it and i found it you know a bit of a chore then maybe i wouldn't have done that as
1:01:27
effectively so i think ultimately it's about question your motivation
1:01:32
and then also ensure that you have sufficient time because i think personally i think there'll be nothing
1:01:37
worse than over promising and under delivering in a in a a volunteer relationship um
1:01:45
i think it is important that you see it through thank you thanks guy and same question
1:01:50
to you tim and what's the advice you would give someone who's thinking about it i i was trying
1:01:58
not to be the 23rd person this minute to be on mute for talking across all zoom calls across the world
1:02:05
um i think i i agree with everything that's
1:02:11
been said and um and understand that you don't have to be perfect
1:02:20
you know um it's it's uh it's like so many things you learn on the job right um
1:02:27
you know for um you know i'm waiting for my dog to start howling
1:02:32
outside and as a case of you know if you've got you know if you've got pets children or anything else going on in your life you know you learn on the
1:02:38
job and it's exactly the same with volunteering um you know if you've got if you can
1:02:43
make the commitment and that's critical then and you've got the course girls
1:02:49
trust in the training trust in the support network that you'll have around you ask stupid questions
1:02:55
uh you know absolutely the best ones to ask and um and you will you will learn and
1:03:03
it's it's um it's very rewarding and as i say i've been involved in the
1:03:08
mentoring program since 2015 and i'm still in contact with with my mentee um
1:03:13
from from then and it's you know it's fantastic to you know occasionally be able to add
1:03:19
some um some insight or to be a be a sounding board as the years go by
1:03:25
so you know fantastic programs and great to be part to be a part of them i see mrs cheese is
1:03:32
joining us hi tim sorry i'm going to let you guys
1:03:37
carry on until it's my turn we're almost wrapping up um questions but um
1:03:43
yes you'll be hearing from peter very very shortly and so i've just got one last uh question for each member of the panel
1:03:50
and it's hopefully a very very quick one before i sort of talk a little bit about um some of the broader impacts that um that you as volunteers
1:03:57
and all our volunteers have made over the last year and but if you could kind of sum up your
1:04:03
volunteering the lasting impression that your volunteering has had on you in maybe two two or three words what would
1:04:09
it be and i guess for chloe as a beneficiary of our um volunteering what the what the impact's
1:04:15
been on you in just two words so if i come to chloe first
1:04:21
in just a few words right um i guess thank you
1:04:27
um yeah really really um appreciative of the whole thing um i i found out about it um
1:04:34
at a really really crucial time um i wouldn't necessarily say i was desperate but i really really
1:04:40
needed um a push to to kind of like show that um it was all gonna be okay uh i think everyone would
1:04:46
kind of um agree uh and just generally i i've learned a lot um i think i think mentors learn a lot
1:04:53
uh as i've said we learn a lot from each other and i've got so much to take forward now
1:04:58
with with all uh my applications and my my confidences has built massively and i wouldn't be
1:05:04
able to be on this call today so just really really appreciate the work that people do and volunteering it's
1:05:10
it's certainly inspired me thank you sarah oh gosh this is so
1:05:15
difficult but i think powerful i think i've probably mentioned it too many times already but i think i think the nature
1:05:21
of what you're doing is is incredibly powerful um and and can be transformative
1:05:28
so that's there's a couple of words and i don't know i've picked enabling but i think it's probably not the best word
1:05:34
but just this feeling of um helping to enable other people
1:05:39
in my mind since young people to go forward um in a more equipped way hopefully into
1:05:46
brighter futures so yeah thank you and guy you want a two words if you
1:05:54
if you can uh yeah uh sorry you really pinned me down uh i'll i'll
1:06:00
two themes are now going into two words but i'll keep it brief um i think the lasting
1:06:05
impression i've been left with is that uh it's certainly contributed to my own personal well-being
1:06:10
um it's given me um not that i felt worthless but it's given me a sense of
1:06:16
of worth of adding value and there's also been a sense that the
1:06:23
organizations of the individuals that i've worked with have valued the input so there has been there
1:06:29
is that feedback and i think for anybody who is considering volunteering you do get the feedback and it and it's
1:06:35
fairly the you know the the the period of time between your input and the feedback is is quite
1:06:42
short so it's effective in that way um and i think um you know you also get
1:06:48
the opportunity to to make a difference so in terms of my two words my first word would be well-being my
1:06:55
second and um it's it's two words but i'll it's hyphenated it's adding value
1:07:03
yeah thank you guys very much and tim uh finally with you my quick reflections would be um
1:07:11
a feeling of gratefulness for being involved in the program the
1:07:16
importance of going at the mentees pace
1:07:22
the opportunity to learn together and an overall reflection of being
1:07:30
useful that's brilliant thank you so much and thank you so much to all of our panel
1:07:37
and we still got um i'm going to very quickly talk through um some of our impact just to give you a
1:07:43
real sense you've heard directly from um sarah tim and guy in terms of return to being volunteers and obviously
1:07:49
the impact volunteering has had on chloe and hopefully that's really given you um a helpful sense of of the programs
1:07:55
you could support but also what you can gain and from being involved as a volunteer and what to expect and just a mass
1:08:01
effect from me to our 12 panel this afternoon and i'm just going to quickly and share
1:08:06
my screen and just give you a sense of some of the sort of impact that volunteers have had over the last year
1:08:12
and then it's great that peter's here so and after that i will very um make sure there's a good amount of
1:08:18
time for peter to talk to you all about um about the you know how important how
1:08:23
important volunteers are to the cipd and in terms of what we stand for as an organization
1:08:29
so and so just to kind of give you um a sense of the impact i'm going to share
1:08:35
on my screen i hope it works um so if i do that
1:08:43
cool so this is just um this is uh just to give you a sense of of the
1:08:49
impact that our programs have had over the over the last year and as you can see there's some and really great um kind of figures on
1:08:56
there and i think a couple of things i'll call out which particularly around our covered response programs is that um
1:09:02
as you know guy plan supports the charities hr mentoring and during that sort of six to eight six
1:09:08
to eight months 77 charities and was supported which is which is fantastic and it was really fantastic to
1:09:14
be able to have an impact then we also and work for the department for business to support smes
1:09:20
and with um pro bono hr support as well and 64 smes were supported by
1:09:25
um cipd members and you heard from chloe in terms of the
1:09:31
impact steps ahead has had and um and 61 and jobs have been secured so far
1:09:38
this year and through medicine week as i said we did a big kind of re-launch um of the program and
1:09:45
i'm gonna stop my video just so that you can make sure you can see the size yeah
1:09:53
and and you know it really kind of makes a difference to so many so many individuals and we you know we
1:09:58
expect that number to grow but i think the main the key thing the steps ahead it's also about just helping people feel closer to being
1:10:05
able to secure a job so far steps ahead and job seekers have had you know really felt that they've gained
1:10:11
from that mentoring support and what they can do and and sarah talked a lot about the enterprise advisor program and it's
1:10:17
amazing to see that 990 enterprise advisors this year have reached nearly 50 000 students which is just
1:10:24
fantastic and the aspiring hrd's program continues to go from strength to strength thanks to
1:10:29
mentors like tim and we've had 39 mentees um going through the programming about
1:10:34
start off with cohort so um so you've heard directly from the individuals and hopefully that gives you
1:10:39
a sense of actually the broader impact that those whole you know all those volunteers are making
1:10:45
um in the in the world so um and then
1:10:51
which is the next couple of slides i won't sort of label on these too much and i'm sure we can share these with you afterwards but
1:10:56
and there's some other people featured here like sarah you've heard from today but this is just some other of our of our volunteers so lucy is a really
1:11:03
dedicated mentor and and there's really been a fantastic volunteer
1:11:09
also tattoo and what was the highlight is that on our web pages and we shared that within the um chat is
1:11:16
we've got some uh web pages now where we're trying to share a lot more of those stories and so you can meet there's a meet the
1:11:22
volunteers page and there's also success stories page so and so these are some of the quotes that we've kind of
1:11:28
pulled out and to share with you today so hopefully it starts to give you a real sense of
1:11:33
what the impact you could have and what you can you can kind of gain out of it so the only thing i wanted to leave you
1:11:39
in terms of our programs is this is the range of things that you can kind of do so you've heard about enterprise programming it can make
1:11:45
a huge difference and within schools but also through steps ahead you can support those leaving school or leaving education to
1:11:51
help them and to make that transition into work and you're really kind of connecting with your local communities
1:11:57
here from our panel there's so much you can learn and from from doing your volunteering and really kind
1:12:03
of um sharing your skills and knowledge and we also have um updates to the
1:12:08
professional map so to make sure it's clear to you in terms of how your volunteering and behaviors and can support and
1:12:15
you you demonstrating behaviors and on the professional map and and where we can we're always trying
1:12:20
to look at how we can connect viewers volunteers with each other so this is an example of one
1:12:26
session where we're trying to do that virtually and in the future we're hoping to sort of build on this and as i say we
1:12:31
really want to hear your feedback on today and which i'll talk a bit more about at the end and
1:12:36
i really have more ways to connect you with each other and share those share those stories so um so i'll stop sharing now and
1:12:44
but i just want to put my video back on and we just want to you know really kind
1:12:49
of shout out to all our all our amazing volunteers and the impact they've made and i think particularly
1:12:55
and during the pandemic we've been amazed to see the kind of commitment and dedication that people have had and
1:13:00
you've heard from some of those volunteers today and the impact they've had and so it's not
1:13:05
just me that thinks this uh it's i'm delighted to say that um it's very much um at the heart and soul of cipd in terms
1:13:12
of in terms of our values and what we're about and volunteering is really crucial to that so i'm really delighted that peter
1:13:18
isabel has been able to join us this afternoon and so i'm going to hand over to peter now who's going to say a little bit more
1:13:24
thank you thank you jamila and thank you to everybody who's contributed this
1:13:30
afternoon um it's a real pleasure to talk to you all i'm a very very big supporter of these programs and
1:13:36
when i started as chief executive uh the cipd eight years ago i could see
1:13:41
some of this activity which was sitting somewhat at the side of the organization and we
1:13:46
just started programs like steps ahead and i was very keen to to grow these programs because i know that through our
1:13:53
professional community even more than so many others and i talked to lots of other professional
1:13:58
communities we really do believe in trying to help others i think it's very much part of the dna of our
1:14:05
profession as it should be it's focused on people and i think of all professions we are more aware of the issues of people
1:14:12
getting into work and getting on at work focusing on questions of inclusion and all these very very important things
1:14:19
so wonderful to have this opportunity this event just to celebrate what we're doing to thank all of you for the contributions that you make and to hear
1:14:26
as i just heard in the last few minutes from the panel on what it means to them to be mentoring and coaching and supporting and
1:14:32
volunteering as well um and as i said i couldn't be more proud of the the overall
1:14:38
impact that we're making as a professional community across these different things that we do steps ahead helping people like chloe to
1:14:46
get into work and get on in work and of course you know what could be more important now as we we know that coming through
1:14:52
the pandemic there are many young people who are struggling and anxious about getting into work
1:14:57
um and of course we've got other programs which we've added to that around uh things like parent returners which
1:15:04
has always been an issue and again will be more of an issue as we look ahead with all these concerns that people have
1:15:10
about what will happen in the best pandemic world um the programs that we've done
1:15:15
working with the cris and enterprise company which has been a fantastic success the uh enterprise advisors
1:15:21
which uh you've all talked about i know during this event and that has been a remarkable success in our partnership
1:15:27
with the careers and enterprise company i think we provide uh more than 50 percent of the enterprise advisors working with schools
1:15:34
because again we're bringing our professional competence and understanding of the world of work understanding of business
1:15:40
to support schools in helping their students understand the world of work and make
1:15:45
those kind of connections and fabulous to see some of the stats that jamila talked about where we can see the impact in
1:15:52
terms of things like the gatsby benchmarks which we were also very much part of helping to to create and launch through
1:15:59
the school systems working with groups like gatsby and the careers and enterprise company so we've got those programs also the
1:16:04
charities hr network which was highlighted that's a more recent one where we've been helping charities in terms of hr
1:16:11
support yeah particularly smaller charities and wonderful to see i didn't know that number either but 77 charities is phenomenal
1:16:17
and really really important stuff with them and then of course our aspiring hrd
1:16:23
mentoring programs and and uh wonderful to see the work going on there again a somewhat more recent program but
1:16:29
so important that we are helping our own profession as well helping people to get on in our
1:16:35
profession and again with a very strong and particular emphasis around inclusion
1:16:40
because we know as a profession having said that we're focused on inclusion so much more
1:16:46
as a critical business agenda and making sure that our organizations really do represent the
1:16:51
societies and communities of which we are part and giving everybody opportunity and fair opportunity and work
1:16:57
our own profession needs to make sure it's inclusive and diverse as well and so some of these programs are very much
1:17:04
about that about helping people from ethnic minority backgrounds for example to get in and get on through our
1:17:10
profession so that we can also be exemplars to others in what we are doing and indeed that work is spreading
1:17:16
further because we have quite a lot of connections and i talk regularly to heads of other professional
1:17:22
bodies and across all the different sorts of disciplines and the first thing is when i talk about
1:17:29
our volunteering programs they're always saying oh gosh we try to run volunteering programs but we don't get the level of
1:17:34
uptake that is happening across the cipd and as i said i think that's very much down to the
1:17:41
nature of who we are as a profession and why we understand that these things are important
1:17:46
so we're trying to help other professional bodies of some of these things and also helping to drive these ideas of inclusion and
1:17:52
diversity across all the professions because you know as professions and professional bodies we do have a big impact
1:17:59
collectively on the world of work so a lot of very exciting things of that nature going on so
1:18:04
huge said thanks to all of you and i should also course out all of the volunteers that work with us very
1:18:10
directly all the volunteers who are part of our branch networks and support all of those connections into
1:18:16
the local uh hr membership and communities in regions up and down the country
1:18:22
and of course the assessors that work with us and many others that work in terms of helping our
1:18:28
professional qualifications and assessments and skills and capabilities so there are a lot of other volunteering activities
1:18:35
that happen in what i always think of as our wider ecosystem but as you also heard from the panel towards the end
1:18:41
there i think we all recognize and indeed we've published research uh which shows the benefit to people
1:18:47
when they volunteer and it was wonderful to hear some of the comments in the panel because i think these are so true that
1:18:54
helping others is one of the most profoundly engaging and motivating things that we can do and again there's
1:19:00
been a lot of research on this it's the old adage of you know rather than giving somebody a fish for the day you know you can feed them
1:19:06
for a day i teach them to fish and and they can feed themselves for life and it's those sorts of ideas that we're making a difference by
1:19:13
helping others and in turn that helps ourselves it helps with our own understanding and and i think inclusion in terms of
1:19:20
our own mentality but it builds our confidence too and our ability to to extend the value of networking the
1:19:28
value of volunteering to others to our networks and contacts ourselves and those are very powerful
1:19:33
parts of what we influence in the world of volunteering as well so fabulous stuff and and what i would also
1:19:40
say is we are working on plans now to push this further
1:19:46
i've always believed that not only as a professional body particularly in our profession should we be really encouraging
1:19:52
volunteering um in all the different ways that we do we're also at a time as i've touched on that volunteering and
1:19:59
support for many people in the world of work has never been more important but we're also a charity at the end of
1:20:06
the day and and whilst it's you know we're not a charity in terms of what often when you say we're a charity people might
1:20:12
think of as a charity we run as a charitable institution as indeed to many of the professional
1:20:18
bodies and i want to capture some of that idea of us being a charity very much through the programmes of volunteering that we
1:20:24
have because i think there's a very direct and demonstrable part of what it means to be a charity
1:20:31
and in that sense um we're as i said working on plans and programs which i hope to be able to announce
1:20:36
coming into the autumn time about how we put more of our surplus if you will as a
1:20:42
professional body directly into these sorts of activities in order to grow our volunteering
1:20:47
networks and capabilities and to reach out to others you know i've mentioned examples of
1:20:52
organizations that we we work with but with others that are extending this reach and network of volunteering
1:20:58
a matter of course is included and and rightly so government departments you know things like the steps ahead programs has always worked
1:21:05
very closely with the department for work and pensions for example so i want to put a little bit more sort of funding and heft behind of
1:21:11
all of this because now really is the time isn't it and and to make more of this is what we do
1:21:17
as a professional body so as i said you'll hear more about that in the coming months but again i think the takeaway
1:21:24
hopefully for all of you is that these are really really important things to us all as a community as a profession and
1:21:31
certainly as the cipd is the professional body and they're very important to me personally and i know also
1:21:37
to so many people that work with and through the cipd so look out for all of that my final
1:21:43
thanks would go of course to jamila and her team i mean they they are such a wonderful bunch of people they have so much commitment and so much
1:21:49
enthusiasm for developing these programs and working with all of you making these things happen
1:21:55
including today's event so big thanks to jamila and to dee who i know who's worked hard to pull
1:22:00
this event together so uh a big shout out for my team within the cipd whom again i couldn't be more proud so
1:22:07
thank you very much to all of you we really look forward to keeping these programs moving and as i said
1:22:13
drive them further at such an important time i think in these changes in economies and jobs and
1:22:20
the future for so many people which we can all help and enable and support in some very meaningful
1:22:26
and impactful ways and what could be more engaging and uh inspiring than doing these things
1:22:32
so thank you so much to all of you and i look forward to hopefully the next event be face to face
1:22:38
or at least hybrid because i think we're all looking forward to being able to reconnect with each other in
1:22:43
in different ways or more normal ways if you will but uh at least this allows us to connect uh in
1:22:48
the ways that we have today so thank you and i'll hand back to camila thank you so much peter i know it's
1:22:54
really um it's really great i think for everybody to hear from you as well in terms of cipd's commitment to um social impact
1:23:01
programs and volunteering and also fantastic work for branches so thank you so much and
1:23:06
for joining us i'm sure um everyone's appreciated hearing hearing from you as well in terms of this is you know really
1:23:11
kind of heart and soul of cipd and what we stand for and i just wanted to
1:23:16
say again just a massive massive thank you and to our panelists and peter and of
1:23:22
course today and the project team have worked together to put this together and it's been really really brilliant
1:23:28
and um to talk to you to talk to the panel and and just have so many of you here and
1:23:34
with us this afternoon as i said at the beginning this is really kind of the first um volunteer event we've done in a while
1:23:42
since in sort of postcoded world and and we're hoping to keep running similar sorts of things in
1:23:48
the future and as peter said maybe a hybrid version in the future or physical events as well as as things
1:23:54
open up and we're able to do a bit more and but really really keen to hear from everyone who's come today
1:23:59
in terms of your thoughts what you what you thought was work really well what you would like to hear more of what would you like to see in future
1:24:05
and future events and really really keen to hear from you so we will be um asking you for your feedback and we
1:24:12
will also and obviously the session has been recorded so that will be made available in a couple of days and we will have a look at and sorry for
1:24:19
any questions that we didn't manage to get to but we'll try and try and follow up those if we if we haven't managed to and and we will also
1:24:26
uh have a look at your comments in there in the chat and sort of see if there's anything we can sort of take from there and that you've
1:24:32
shared and but thank you so much for everyone for for joining um i've you know i've really enjoyed having
1:24:38
the opportunity to talk to our volunteers him from from chloe in terms of somebody that that our programs
1:24:44
have benefited and it's been fantastic to have peter here too so that all that remains to say is thank
1:24:49
you very much everybody and i hope you've enjoyed the event and and one thing in terms of something
1:24:54
coming up quite soon before i before i forget is we also have our we are working with um pregnant
1:25:00
screed and we have a an event called the reset festival happening in july
1:25:05
uh from the 5th to the 14th of july so it's a virtual event and the main drive for this is we're
1:25:10
working with them to um promote steps ahead uh mentoring support to parents so as peter mentioned that when
1:25:17
he was talking about that we've done a lot of work supporting parents as well and so if you're really inspired by
1:25:23
today and you really want to sign up to volunteer then we'd love you to sign up as a steps head mentor and potentially
1:25:29
and support one of those parents who will be who will be joining that event so we'll be offering kind of steps head
1:25:34
support to any of those parents who who would like to take it up and so that's something a date for your diary
1:25:40
we'll share the details in the follow up and and and uh please share share the link in
1:25:46
the in the chat as well so and so you can find out more there and but yeah one last time
1:25:52
thank you so much to peter thank you so much to the panel and thanks to dina and olga and uh leah and hannah who put a
1:25:58
lot of work into into pulling this all together um and uh and all that remains to say is thank you
1:26:04
to everyone who's joined us this afternoon and we hope you found it an enjoyable and useful event thank you
1:26:10
very much

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Be the change you want to see: How our volunteers are making an impact during the pandemic

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