In organisations large and small, when given an opportunity to engage with their local communities, people will sometimes say, ‘we would love to do that, but we don’t have the budget’. I always find that an interesting observation as the budget I have is called goodwill. It takes a village to raise a child and that saying is the same for community engagement. I can’t do what I do alone, it is a team effort, and I’m lucky that the people I connect with are good willed and they rarely turn me down when I ask for support. Suppliers, colleagues, and tenants have all supported me. MIRA Tech Park is like a small town with around 1,500 people on site each day across 40 businesses. It is a world of opportunity with community, place, and people at its core.
Young people need an opportunity today more than ever! We see that every day in the news. At MIRA, we might not always have the recruitment opportunities for young people to move directly into a job with us, but we give them a positive experience and open up that next step for them which seemed hard to see before. We want the experience with us to make a difference and encourage them to keep that belief in themselves and pursue good things.
Reflecting on the last 12 months, our activities have spiralled to include some new projects and new partners as we help young people take that next important step on their own journey. In February we launched a WEX programme for six students aged 16-19 years from Dorothy Goodman SEN School. The cohort came in every Wednesday, a day which became their favourite day of the week. I was delighted that we achieved 100% attendance, despite one or two students feeling nervous when we started out. It was important to me to make the students feel welcome and safe, so we organised a ‘familiarisation, meet and greet event’ where everybody came in with teachers and parents to meet all our hosts and hear about the programme. It was an informal welcome to our site and our businesses. We then facilitated a range of activities for the students. They worked with robotics, AI, had talks on cyber, worked on drones, visited test facilities such as our dynamic simulator and climatic wind tunnels. Our tenants joined in showcasing the range of vehicles they test and certify. They also learnt about data management recording systems on vehicles, estate management building inspections, health and safety, and event planning.
Of course, no experience at MIRA Tech Park would be complete without a tour of our extensive Proving Ground, which the students really enjoyed. We even had a session in our onsite Gym with the students rotating around the fitness stations where we demonstrated commercial responsibilities in a fun and energetic way. At the end of the six weeks, it seemed fitting to hold a Graduation, and it was a proud day with parents and grandparents, school staff and HBBC joining us for the celebrations. As I tidied the room up after the graduation one student returned with his Mum and gave me the biggest hug. He had loved his time with us, and he was feeling confident about another work experience project away from MIRA Tech Park. Another non-verbal student began to use his talker more confidently and expressed an interest in organising some events on his return to school. This really pleased the teaching staff.
Another highlight this year was working with our brilliant catering team at Thomas Franks and our volunteers. They are a real can-do hands-on group that embrace a challenge with great enthusiasm. Together we held several food packing events with the Thomas Franks Foundation sourcing ingredients that would have ended up going to landfill from food that was in date and good quality. The ingredients are cooked into a delicious meal and portioned out into containers and refrigerated or frozen down for onward delivery to charitable causes. Together we have created around 3,600 meals, some of which we delivered to a local food bank and others to a community café in Nuneaton.
Working with Thomas Franks in June we held an inaugural Supper Club in our Atrium events facility. We did this for a Nuneaton CIC called Aspire in Arts. This successful youth services provision hosts 250 young people every week. They take part in creative arts activities, such as textiles and design, music, arts, catering, fitness, hairdressing, fitness, beauty, and more. This event became a showcase of young people with Thomas Franks apprentices involved in cooking and Aspire’s young people serving the food and drinks whilst a young person DJ’d and a young band entertained the guests with a live music performance. All young people serving received front of house training prior to the event. 60 guests attended and £3,000 was raised to fund courses for some of the young people that had no funding provision for training. It was interesting to hear that the training and work experience the young people gained from being involved in this event was also incredibly valuable to them. The experience gave the young people a real confidence boost and the front-of-house trainers said they all had great potential to go into hospitality.
Following the Supper Club we supported Aspire with a Wheels 2 Tracks Motorcycle restoration project. They had funding, a tutor, and they just needed a place to work where they could complete the project. Colleagues from the MIRA Technology Institute hosted the group and the students, who weren’t involved in education or training, really embraced this course and did well at it. The celebration was attended by Warwickshire Police and Highways England.
Our STEM days have also resulted in positive and proactive follow-ups with students seeking work experience across our Tech Park. As a host it’s great to see our young apprentices talking about their career journeys and encouraging students to follow in their footsteps. We also have senior colleagues there talking about what they look for in a recruit which adds important value on that career pathway.
To support our Wildlife Trust Biodiversity benchmark, we have hosted Scouts in the carpentry workshop building bird boxes along with beekeeper days at our Apiary and the return visits for honey spinning days. A primary school group also joined us to plant sunflower seeds and celebrate Sir David Attenborough’s centenary when, of course, birthday cake was involved! Most recently, an Armed Forces cadet group came and helped put up fencing for a new Woodland Walk. All these activities give students teamwork skills and they engage with different professions as well as encouraging a passion to protect our natural world.
This year we also hosted two VIP guests as young people with mobility issues joined us for a track experience and a day to remember. Sometimes a risk assessment may require a bit more time and effort, but where there is a will there is a way to make an experience possible. It’s priceless to see what a day like this means to people.
Wider engagement has included hosting B2B networking events for our local authorities where we have discussed different skills needs, explored funding for upskilling, showcased opportunities for arts groups and colleges to create new qualifications, and shared best practice apprenticeship schemes so others can learn about what works well. When the Q&A is dynamic, informed, and goes on longer than anticipated – you know the event has been worthwhile for all the businesses in the room but especially the SMEs.
We’re also out litter-picking and we promote health and wellbeing through a range of activities all delivered through goodwill and strong partnership. If you would like to get involved or share any ideas, please get in touch. Goodwill is everywhere when you start to look.
To conclude, we can all play a part in engaging and enthusing young people with new experiences in the workplace. As well as the young people benefitting and learning from a new experience, colleagues also benefit from getting involved. Whether that be from sharing knowledge, feel good factor, or learning new skills themselves. That learning may benefit colleagues in their life inside and outside of the workplace. We’ve seen examples of this with colleagues taking up volunteering, fundraising and mentoring. There really is no downside to supporting the next generation!
This is a personal blog post. Any opinions, findings, and conclusion or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Centre for the New Midlands or any of our associated organisations/individuals.
ABOUT OUR AUTHOR:
Lindsey Randle, MIRA Technology Park’s community engagement lead, has spent 15 years at MIRA Technology Park and is responsible for relationships with a range of stakeholders and community groups – from tenants on site through to local schools. Lindsey also supports local authorities with B2B events and Chairs the Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce’s North Warwickshire Local Business Forum.
