Giving steel new appeal for students in Dunkerque
Today's challenge
For the last 12 years our plants in the Dunkerque area have been running an educational programme with local schools. The initial aim was to supplement science lessons with a case study on how steel is made, and give students more insight into the possibilities of working in our sector.
The project was a great success from the start, but by 2007 we felt there was the potential to do a lot more with the scheme.
Identifying the problem
When we reviewed the scheme in 2007 two new opportunities became obvious straightaway in response to our recruitment challenge. Schools in France were being asked to include more teaching about economics and industry and the huge surge of interest in the environment and climate change created an obvious chance for us to get young people involved in the public debate about sustainability. We're proud of the progress the Dunkerque and Mardyck sites have made on improving sustainability performance, and some of the work we're doing is both pioneering and innovative, such as our new process for re-using industrial emissions to generate energy. Our focus, in particular, is on achieving sustainability through innovation, investment in environmental measures, and better security and safety performance. One challenge we've faced is communicating this commitment more widely - both inside and outside the company - and the schools programme could play an important role in doing this.
Our response
We already had about 100 managers involved in the original school project, all of them volunteers. Each session would typically take the form of a two-hour workshop with groups of 14-year-old students, many of which were followed by a visit to the plant.
We didn't want the new programme to demand more time and resources from the people involved, so we arranged the programme so that it would maximise the time they had available. We also had to help them manage the much wider range of new subjects, some of which are beyond the scope of their everyday job. We needed to offer them the right training and support so that they could communicate the company's position on sustainable development, and have a good general knowledge of this fast-changing subject. This also included special training to help the persons involved to communicate effectively with young people.
Developing a practical solution
The first step was to create an internal working group to look at the existing programme, assess what the teachers were asking for, and decide what we could provide in response. We backed this up by running a survey of 400 young people on a visit to the site. They told us that we were making good progress on sustainability, but when you are 14 years old, you do not always find our industry very attractive as a place to work. This gave us some useful new insights about how we present ourselves going forwards.
The new programme we developed now covers steel-making, sustainable economic development, the environment, innovation, quality, safety, jobs and training. These are all areas where ArcelorMittal in Dunkerque has real expertise, which we can share with the young people. The programme also has a direct relevance to four lessons or classes, including physics, chemistry, geography, and natural sciences, as well as the optional course schools are now offering on commerce and industry.
We have since developed a pack of support material for teachers, using tangible examples from across the business, as well as media articles and external sources of information. This helps the teachers prepare the children beforehand, and help them get the most out of the session.
Most of the costs of the project are in staff time, though there is also a small budget for materials, all of which have been produced internally.
The results
The new programme has only been running for twelve months but the feedback so far has been excellent. We're now working in far closer collaboration with teachers, and they've found it particularly useful to have real examples from the company to use in their lessons. For example, studying ArcelorMittal's plant locations around the world is an excellent way of exploring the different social, economic and environmental challenges industry faces in developed and developing markets.
We engage the students in lively discussions about their local environment and sustainability, showing them what we're doing to address these issues, and the responsibility we all have as citizens to play our part. And we also spend time looking at the range of technological and engineering careers offered by the steel industry. Our future success depends upon having a skilled and motivated workforce, and it's never too early to start building relationships with young people, and showing them what steel making is really all about.
The programme gives us an enormously powerful opportunity to change the image of steel, by stressing the forward-thinking and innovative aspects of our industry.
Lessons learned
The most important lesson was the value of planning. The time we spent developing the teacher's pack was extremely important, as was the training we offered, especially as it covered both the new range of subjects and key communications techniques. Young people of this age can be a difficult group to reach, but we helped give our people the skills to take the challenge with confidence. This is a real skill including when managing their teams! Another related issue is the amount of time and commitment we ask of each volunteer. Most are giving up around 6 hours per year to participate in the programme, but now that the programme is broader this needs careful management.
We've also realised that there's more we can do to educate our own employees about our environmental performance, and we're now setting up special visits to show the volunteers on the programme exactly what we're doing in this area.
Tomorrow's ambition
We're now hoping to get more of our own people involved, and not just senior managers. Everyone potentially has something to offer, and a programme like this can be an excellent opportunity for more junior staff to gain a better understanding of both the company, and the future challenges faced by our industry.
As Natacha Grondin-Casel, who is in charge of communications at the plant says, "this programme has worked well for everyone involved. It gives our own people the chance to put something back into their local community, and become more active ambassadors for ArcelorMittal. And it's clear that the schools really value our input, and the young people find it stimulating to see how a real company works. We're getting the chance to show them that steel can be exciting, and that ArcelorMittal really is committed to 'transforming tomorrow'. It really opens their eyes!"
Picture: A local class finishing the ArcelorMittal course