Supporting local communities to encourage and develop talent
It’s really important to us at IIZUKA to invest in the communities we operate in. In recent years, we’ve chosen to do this by focusing on young people, supporting them to develop the skills they’ll need for a successful future.
Within our team, we’ve employed a number of apprentices, supporting them through their studies and developing their skills in the workplace. Some have gone on to bigger and better things outside of our team, while others have developed their careers into senior roles internally. We’ve got three apprentices at the moment, all in our client services team, learning skills in customer service, business analysis and support.
Tommy, Ricky and Adriana, IIZUKA’s current apprentices
We have a long history of offering work experience placements to local schools and charities. Our team put together a programme offering real work experience (not just photocopying or making the tea!) - including marketing, coding, customer support and research. This year’s students, Mustafa and Umar from Bishop Vesey school in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham told us they really enjoyed the experience and have a great feel for what a career in software development could look like.
Umar and Mustafa with one of our lead developers, Martin
Our charity partner, St Basils, https://stbasils.org.uk/ supports young people who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, across Birmingham and the West Midlands. Not only do they provide housing support, but they also provide wider well-being support, education, work skills and training opportunities. We’re really proud to have donated £19,000 to St Basils over the last 18 months, from a mixture of fundraising, sponsorship and corporate donations. Going forward, we will be supporting their ‘You Can’ Employability service and hope to share some of our expertise mentoring young people and supporting them into work.
Left - the IIZUKA team celebrate completing the Great Birmingham Run. Right - the team present a cheque to Barrie Hodge, Head of Fundraising and Communications for St Basils.
We believe that it’s also really important to support community sporting activities - as a brilliant way of providing skills, wellbeing, physical and mental health support for young people. We’re proud to sponsor two football teams, Cradley Town under 13s Lionesses (https://www.facebook.com/cradleytowndclionesses) and Hayling United under 12s (https://www.facebook.com/HaylingUnitedYouth/).
Cradley Town under 13 Lionesses team
We’re committed to continuing this investment, creating social value for our communities, providing support and opportunities for young people and broadening the skills and experience of our own team members.
