BUDDING soldiers and aspiring police officers can get an insight into the profession from those in the know during a two-day careers fair in Birmingham, hosted by former Derbyshire police chief Kul Mahay.
The DRIVE (Diversity, Race, Inclusion, Versatility and Equality) event takes places at Birmingham City University on Friday, September 17 and Saturday, September 18 with organisers promising lots of ‘hands-on’ experiences for visitors.
Aimed at encouraging and inspiring more youngsters from a black, Asian and mixed ethnicity backgrounds, the initiative has the full support of the three blue light services – police, ambulance and fire services – educators, military organisations and the West Midlands combined authority.
Kul, who spent more than 30 years working for Derbyshire Constabulary before setting up leadership organisation Ignite Your Inner Potential, said: “We want to make the event as fun as possible, with a focus on community involvement on the Saturday. Whilst all spaces for the Friday have been taken, there are still opportunities to attend on the Saturday. We want families who have anyone who may be interested in joining our incredible uniform services to come and have honest and open conversations with men and women from these organisations.
“There are lots of STEM activities planned across the two days. We have police drones and police dogs there – visitors can come down and get ‘hands-on’ with those – and the Army are putting together an assault course at the venue.
“I know that there are a lot of talented youngsters from a minority background who know very little about what options are available to them post-16. I want to help change that.
“We also want the event to be somewhere that people can come and have relaxed and open conversations about race and careers.”
Also speaking at the event will be Army veteran-turned-businessman Samuel T. Reddy, who co-founded TriPotential – a not-for-profit organisation which helps increase BAME recruitment in the military and emergency services and develop future leaders from within these communities – with Kul in 2020.
Kul said: “It is a joint passion of Sam and I to increase the representation of black, Asian and mixed ethnicity people in our most vital uniformed services both at frontline and leadership level. We see this as the only way we can increase the cognitive diversity within these organisations and better serve the public.
“It is an honour to be involved with the DRIVE event and real pleasure to have worked on this great event with the Deputy Lord Lieutenant for the West Midlands, Professor Martin Levermore.
“We want to develop leadership, confidence, demonstrate practical use of STEM and highlight diversity and inclusion opportunities here in the Midlands and I’m looking forward to welcoming everyone to Birmingham.”
The event will run from September 17-18 at The Pavilion, Birmingham University and places are free. There is, however, a limit of 20 places per school/college on each day.
To book your place, visit https://bit.ly/DriveWM
ENDS
This press release was issued by Penguin PR. For more information or to arrange interviews please contact Kerry Ganly on 07734 723951 or by emailing [email protected]
