Last year, the Terex MP Quality team based at Omagh embarked on a journey that has been the site offer full-time employment to a young person with learning difficulties. 

The journey began at the beginning of 2022, when the team started working with the 'NOW Group', a local charity with a mission to 'support people with learning difficulties and autism into jobs with a future.' Lindsay Colton, Digital Transformation Manager MP Group said "We saw a great alignment between the NOW Group mission and our Terex purpose and Terex Way values, and in particular our commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Our team, therefore, decided to work with NOW Group to plan a work orientation day at Terex Omagh. A group of NOW participants visited the Terex Omagh site in March 2022, to see what we do and understand the opportunities at Terex as a whole. The teams worked together, following some standard work on the day to assemble lovely picture frames, which the participants got to take home as a memory of the day."

Following the successful work orientation, the Terex Omagh Quality team was invited to NOW Group's premises in Omagh, where they did some training with NOW's participants around basic work skills and what employers look for. The work carried out had a really big impact on one of the NOW participants who, after his initial visit to Terex, set his heart and mind on getting a job at Terex. He was committed from the get-go and the NOW Group working together with the Terex Omagh Quality Team managed to secure a work placement for this participant in the Omagh stores.

Lindsey continued, "During his placement this young man was quick to learn, worked hard and became part of the team. Credit goes to both him and his colleagues in stores, who spent time training him and making him feel like one of the team. The Terex team were so impressed during his placement that at the end of the 12 weeks we were happy to offer him a permanent role. Hopefully this is just the start of Terex Omagh and the NOW team working together to get adults with learning difficulties and autism into the workplace. The experience to date has been very positive and not only have we got a committed team member out of it, but we are helping to increase diversity within our workforce which will make us more innovative and successful as a business going forward." 

There are plans to repeat the process for 2023 and beyond, with an aim to live out our Terex purpose to "improve the lives of people around the world" and create a diverse, inclusive workplace where we continuously improve and innovate.

Congratulations to all the team members at Terex Omagh who has supported this initiative and to the NOW Group staff who have been on hand to help and support the team along this journey. Both events were rewarding and fun for all involved, and everyone learned something, so it was win win!