Just over eight years ago, and driven by an urgent requirement to find more innovative ways to recruit talent into contact centre jobs at our Birmingham headquarters, we formed what is now considered to be an inspirational jobs and skills partnership with Birmingham Metropolitan College (BMet).

Almost a decade on, the now award-winning link up has provided career opportunities for over 800 unemployed people in the West Midlands through the launch of a Sector-based Work Academy Programme, part funded by the Department for Work and Pensions and the West Midlands Combined Authority.

Essentially, it’s been about doing things differently and developing a sustainable model which aligns closely with our HR and recruitment strategy. Those who join the programme come from varying backgrounds. They could be from marginalised or disadvantaged groups, retraining due to job market challenges, struggling to find work, or found themselves in long-term unemployment.

The integral role of Impact Sourcing

Those identified for the programme, which results for many in a meaningful career with prospects, come in through the Impact Sourcing recruitment model – an approach not so widely known in the UK, but which is a recruitment route for businesses to provide job opportunities to those who may have limited employment prospects or simply, due to varying reasons, need support in getting a leg up into the job market to realise their full career potential.

Impact Sourcing is a rapidly emerging way to access and unearth talent where traditionally businesses may not put their recruitment efforts. As I’ve mentioned, it’s formed part of our People and CSR strategies, and within the industry we have been urging other BPOs to adopt the same model, using our success in the UK and South Africa as a benchmark we think others can aspire to.

Overall, it has seen hundreds of talented people join our business – those who we may otherwise have missed.

A partnership template which delivers

For us, our partnership with BMet simply goes from strength-to-strength and has snowballed positively due to us having such a strong, shared passion for the activity, and due to how collaboratively we work together to continuously improve the programme. We understand each other and have learnt so much over the eight years, building a unique understanding, tweaking the programme where we need to, listening to feedback, learning from mistakes, and working to help people back or into work, or for the very first time.

BMet also understands our values and expectations so they know which candidates are more suitable, thus they are prepared and set up for success from the very start. We are both on the same page and truly routing for the candidates to do well.

That agile and honest relationship has been vital but it’s important to note that people aren’t just completing a four-week programme and walking away with a qualification at the end of it, they are learning and gaining new life-skills, such as negotiating and interacting with customers and interview techniques. Most importantly, those who are successful are being placed into actual jobs with long term career prospects, with many examples of people moving further up the ladder and into training, business development and finance roles.

The Sector-based Work Academy is essentially pre-employment training, which leads to work experience and ultimately, a job interview. BMet take on the first three weeks of pre-employment training and after that follows one week of generic work experience with us – covering the business itself, soft skills, conversation training, and core skills such as handling negotiations and general customer service techniques. This then prepares the candidates for a final day of interviews and an assessment which aims to draw out their passion and what they’ve learnt, although we are not expecting them to be experts.

Following a successful interview, they are then offered permanent work and recruited into specific teams or campaigns we are working on, including with some of the UK’s best-known brands.

Focused on the future

We’ve seen a genuine interest from local authorities and the private sector in this type of honest, professional partnership, and ultimately how it really is helping to fill skills gaps, find the best people, train them, and ultimately, retain those who are flourishing.

The future is bright and, aside from the obvious recruitment angle, the partnership will remain an important part of our corporate and social responsibility as we move towards the tenth anniversary in 2026. We also want to expand it to focus on additional roles beyond advisor positions.

At a time when the fight for talent has never been more obvious, I’d urge others to look at ways of doing things differently with their training and recruitment, and study seriously how Impact Sourcing or the partnership approach really could work, and importantly help people into jobs with true career prospects. Our link with BMet has been a game-changer. We’re nothing but proud of its success and longevity.

www.sigmaconnected.com,  www.bmet.ac.uk