The First WAF

The first West Midlands Working Age Forum took place on 25th April 2018 at Shoosmiths in Birmingham. There was a great turn out with over 40 people attending and a lot of buzz in the room. The set-up of the event allowed for a lot of networking and interaction between delegates with two guest speakers followed by some food.

Guest speakers included Allie Hamilton, a working mom living with sight loss who has built a career at Vax. She spoke about how people with sight loss shouldn’t let it hold them back in their employment journey or life at all. Our next inspirational speaker was Thomas Pocklington’s Head of Employment, Steph Cutler who shared her journey of sight loss and lessons she has learned on the way including some great insights into running her own business. Words from Steph echoed through the room and many people found themselves relating to her insight of “Sitting at home learning to live with sight loss was not going to help me live with sight loss, I needed to become employable”.

The first Working Age Forum was a great success with lots of positive feedback received. The planning team wanted the first event to be around employment with a focus on networking and peer support and we are pleased to have seen great interactions on the day.

The next WAF is to be held on 26th July 2018.

Publication date: 15 October 2020