Saturday 16th December 2006, 08:13Bonjour! Funny how things change and stay the same. 15 years ago I walked round the streets of the East End of Sheffield looking at the impact of industrial decline and high levels of unemployment. Walking the streets where our customers come from - whether its individuals or business or community organisations - has always helped me think about how we need to work to best support our customers. It was my first day with A4e and I was the first employee and as I hadn't found myself a desk yet, I thought I'd better do something useful. After being unemployed for the previous 3 months since leaving Uni, I wanted to get on and 'do something'.
Thursday morning, I got off a plane in France heading for Southern Paris. I switched on my Blackberry (can't travel anywhere without e-mail!) and quickly ran through some notes to my Board in Israel. We have been offered an opportunity to extend our work in Jerusalem and need to look at how many more people out of work, on top of the 8000 we have seen in the last in the last 18 months, we can support. With nearly 4000 people off benefit and 3500 into sustainable work, we are doing OK but have much more to do. It struck me that here I was, in Paris, about to look at the neighbourhoods where high levels of unemployment and industrial restructuring meant new ways of helping people into work were needed. 3 and a half years ago, I was doing this in Jerusalem, 9 years ago in London and 12 years ago in Doncaster. Plus ca change, I think is the expression. And a few weeks ago my Chairman of our Scottish business was showing me the same areas in Glasgow!
To make sure I didn't get myself into trouble, the team had kindly arranged for our two new managers of our the sites in Southern Paris to meet me at the airport. They had offered to take me though to the area we would be working in and show me the sights. As we travelled round, another thing occurred to me. I've always been lucky to work with people in A4e who care passionately about the work we do. We have always set out to recruit brilliant people who share our vision to make a difference and work on the cusp of the public, private and voluntary sector tackling challenging projects. Even so, when I meet new teams I am always impressed by their energy and commitment.
Having been round the area, I was introduced to a few of the team and shown around the offices. Many were in their first week with us, prior to launch in the New Year and our 'old hands' had been with us for 3 weeks. What I was delighted to see - and is most important in our international work - was that the team really exuded the culture and values of A4e. At the same time, they did so in the context of the French economy and the local suburbs where we will be working.
I also had the opportunity to meet out Joint Venture partners in France. They have been essential in the work with our teams to get the start of the project going well. So, a quick ‘thank you’ to everyone for a very short but useful trip. We launch in 3 weeks so busy and exciting times ahead.
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