Eight New BPF Career Ambassadors Trained

The Career Ambassadors initiative equips people working within the plastics industry with the skills they need to promote the many career opportunities the plastic industry has to offer. It was developed in response to companies facing ongoing challenges with recruitment, partly due to negative perceptions of the plastics industry.

The training is led by Rachel Brickell from Cogent Skills SIP Ambassador Programme. Attendees are taught how to use the SIP ‘Futures in Science’ handbook to create lesson plans aimed at secondary school children in years 9 to 12. Ambassadors are also taught how to build relationships with teachers, career advisors and parents, in addition to how to deliver an appropriate presentation.

The BPF has partnered with STEM Learning UK to provide Career Ambassadors with access to the STEM network forum and resources. Those who train to become a Career Ambassador also become a Cogent SIP Ambassador and STEM Ambassador.

BPF Industrial and Public Affairs Manager Mohamed Elkhalifa states:

The Career Ambassadors programme is a great opportunity for your company to showcase the various career pathways for younger people within the local community and the rewarding work you have to offer. Anyone from the plastics industry can become a career ambassador — you do not have to be a scientist or engineer. The training is free and multiple people from your organisation can attend.

Eight enthusiastic ambassadors attended the session and feedback was very positive. The skills gap is a challenging but important topic to companies across the plastic industry and schemes such as this are an important way to show students the wide range of polymer jobs available.

Mary Aiken-Wood from the BPF showed the ambassadors the additional resources that are available, which can be found on the Polymer Zone section of the BPF website.

Thank you to the ambassadors for your help promoting the plastics industry!

If you are interested in joining the next session, please email [email protected].