PI-Kem Ltd

Initially Chamber training supported me prepare our company for changes around Brexit. Leah and Mandy from International Trade were amazing, and the training events they put on allowed me to lead our company through Brexit without any problems.

Since receiving this help from the International Team, I also began attending Future Faces events, primarily after Sophie invited me to join the 1st Cohort of their mentoring scheme. Future Faces has had a huge impact on my professional development, providing me with a great opportunity to develop my soft skills, such as confidence and networking. The Mentoring Scheme introduced me to a fantastic mentor from Aston University who has helped me develop a 5 year plan to advance my skills, and this has resulted in me starting a level 5 apprenticeship in operations management. I've been able to give back to the Chamber's International team, supporting them by delivering a case study into PI-KEM's response to Brexit and its impact on our international trade. I've also been able to inspire younger members of our team to join Future Faces events, and to join the Mentoring Scheme themselves.

Future Faces has been critical in my personal development journey over the last few years, and i am now able to see other members of my team in the early stages of their own journeys.

The support the Chamber has provided us was paramount to our successful navigation of Brexit. As a company heavily involved in international trade, the risks Brexit posed to us were huge, but the expert support the Chamber was able to provide us, helped ensure these risks were mitigated. As a result we are still preforming strongly despite the ongoing challenges Brexit provided.

Future Faces is allowing myself and our team to learn skills and develop networks to support the companies growth into the future. The skills that Future Faces provide offers the opportunity to improve, which is especially important to my younger team members. It allows them to develop from a School or University mind set, into high performing employees in a modern workplace. The networks we are building now are sure to be relevant throughout our careers and Future Faces is the perfect environment for our younger employee's to learn skills around building these networks.

The Chamber have been my experts for some years now, and having their knowledge to turn to has been critical to our companies successes. I am confident our experience with Brexit would not have been so smooth, were it not for the support the Chamber provided us.

I regularly recommend Future Faces to professionals across the Tamworth and Lichfield area, and I can't emphasize enough, how beneficial it has been for me personally. The mentoring scheme especially has been a defining moment in my career, leading me to improve my skills and leadership styles, and take on a degree level apprenticeship. I am now able to pass my experiences with Future Faces onto my own team members, and seeing them begin their own journeys with Future Faces is very rewarding. It is these reasons that I have recommended to other companies in Tamworth and Lichfield that they encourage their own employee's to join Future Faces as well.