Business News President’s Focus
This month’s President’s Focus is by Victoria Sears, president of Future Faces. Victoria is bids adviser for law firm Mills & Reeve, that has a base in Birmingham. Mills & Reeve is among the 50 largest UK law firms and has been named one of The Sunday Times best 100 companies to work for, a record 14 years running.
At Future Faces, we are passionate about bringing together young professionals to make useful connections in the early stages in their career, and providing them with the tools for professional development. Where we want to be different is by broadening the boundaries of what a ‘young professional’ is, celebrating the differences between the vast range of talented individuals in the region, and encouraging a level of understanding around how we can all work together in synergy across sectors. As a young lawyer-turned-
‘Our next focus is broadening our
horizons even further – to the generation about to enter the workplace with no clear pathway or route to wider networks’
marketer, I can see only too clearly the value of bringing different types of professionals together to enrich each other’s professional lives, share experiences and guide each other to be more balanced, networked and curious individuals. For employers, the result is fulfilled, ambitious and successful employees. We have worked hard to
broaden our membership from a base of ‘young professionals’ (too
often solely seen as people in traditional professional services industries), to a truer representation of young professionals across multiple sectors – young, ambitious career-people who value the sharing of skills and experiences to enrich their existing careers. The result of this has been a 38 per cent increase in members across different sectors since the start of this year. Our leadership development series has brought together
lawyers with filmmakers, entrepreneurs with fundraisers, and accountants with graphic designers to develop a full range of skills necessary for anyone who wants to develop professionally. This year we have held events around the art of networking, managing conflict, career progression, personal branding and lean management to name but a few. With the skills gap staying high on national on regional agendas, we have a responsibility to address this in some way. We are fortunate to be part of the wider Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, giving us a ready- made audience of engaged, willing and enthusiastic members. However, we are very aware that there’s a proportion of society that doesn’t have this level of engagement, or the knowledge base or network to seek out the opportunities we provide. This is why our next focus is broadening our
horizons even further – to the generation about to enter the workplace with no clear pathway or route to wider networks. We are keen to engage with local educational institutions about how we can help encourage young people into the workplace through building on their confidence, employability skills and creating connections that they otherwise may not have had. Our mentoring scheme which pairs Future Faces members with younger peers is an additional step we are making to help towards this issue.
If you would like to get involved with any aspect of Future Faces’ activity (of which there is lots!) then please contact me at
Victoria.Sears@
mills-reeve.com
September 2017 CHAMBERLINK 11
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