We Shape Birmingham - Professor Jon Glasby transcript

Title: Jon Glasby
Duration: 2.29 mins

MUSIC INTRO

I’m Jon Glasby, I’m the Director of the Health Services Management Centre here at the university. I’m Professor of Health and Social Care and I started off training as a social worker here at the university before moving into research.

I fell in love with the University of Birmingham straight away. I came for the course originally but then I loved the campus and I loved the city and I wanted to stay on to work here and to live here. It’s such a vibrant, diverse city, it’s a fantastic place to be.

Well I came to the University of Birmingham for the course originally and for the training but after that it never crossed my mind to go and work anywhere else. I’d come from the South West and then was suddenly training as a social worker in the middle of a really big, really diverse, really vibrant city and it was just a really exciting place to be and to work.

The strapline here at the Health Services Management Centre is ‘Rigour and Relevance in Health and Social Care’, so everything we do is about trying to improve policy and improve practice in local Government and in the health service. It’s the key to what we do and that fits the history and the ethos of the University of Birmingham which was founded to have a really close relationship between the city and learning. The research is important but actually what’s really important is how we then embed it in practice and make a practical difference to people’s lives.

My advice for students would be twofold. First of all, enjoy your courses and make use of the expertise that there is here on the campus, but secondly to really enjoy the city and to become part of it while you’re here. There's so much going on and so many opportunities around student volunteering and participation of other kinds; it would be a missed opportunity not to get involved.

MUSIC

My advice for graduates looking to develop their careers would be not to forget the basics from their initial qualification. I think a University of Birmingham degree really grounds you in something important that employers look for and that they value and that will stand people in really good stead as they move on into their subsequent careers here in the city and the region.

MUSIC OUTRO

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