By Ben Wallace, managing director of the Glass & Glazing Federation.

I’m writing this as the newly appointed MD of the GGF. I’ve been with the GGF since 2012 and becoming the MD was a very proud moment for me personally.

It also gives me a huge opportunity to drive the federation forward and become the powerful voice and positive influence the industry needs.

I believe we have already made big strides over the past few years and I hope that you will continue to see a number of positive changes being made, and new member benefits being launched, that will really showcase the outstanding work of the GGF community.

New members

What has been incredibly pleasing to see is that at the time of writing we’ve welcomed 54 new companies into GGF membership in 2024.

We’ve refined the joining process, made it easier than ever for companies to become members, and they’re seeing the clear advantages and benefits of having the GGF support their business as the leading trade federation in the sector.

New rules

We had previously committed as a federation to update the GGF rules from their current version. They hadn’t been changed in a number of years and didn’t reflect the modern day, forward thinking federation the GGF has become.

This was a significant piece of work and no small undertaking but I’m delighted that we now have in place an updated set of GGF rules that reflect the federation today.

New board

The rules review also meant a new board structure could be put in place to further assist the work of the GGF staff. Rather than having the main GGF board sidetracked by wider GGF Ggroup matters, we now have a dedicated federation board that will focus purely on issues that our members are affected by.

Having such a wealth of industry experience, business acumen and sector insights available to the GGF, in the shape of our board members, provides us with a huge advantage when looking at how best we can place the federation as the voice of the sector in the coming years.

New training platform

November saw us launch our brand new online training platform for GGF Training. Training, skills and competency within the industry is one of our key strategic goals as a group and I’m thrilled we can now provide a one of a kind offering to members.

It has been designed to support our members transition to a fully qualified workforce. The platform, available on both desktop and mobile, offers a range of courses aimed at helping organisations and individuals gain the knowledge that will allow them to demonstrate and prove competencies across various topics and qualifications in their sector.

The platform’s user-friendly interface, supported by an AI-generated tutor named GRACE (Glazing Resources And Career Education), ensures a smooth and effective learning experience. This platform demonstrates our long-term commitment to improving competence within the industry and would be relevant for anyone on an apprenticeship, traineeship, or those wanting to develop their existing skills and further their career.

New jobs board

In conjunction with our new training platform, one of our major new member benefit launches this year was the GGF & FENSA jobs board.

We’ve been doing a huge amount in the skills, training and competency arena. Not only our own training offering but also in attending apprenticeship fairs and running the Skilled Pathways scheme.

But it also soon became apparent that there wasn’t a dedicated site for our industry for companies to post their jobs and recruit the best talent out there.

To date this year the jobs board has been a big success. We’ve seen over 100 companies post over 300 roles with more than 600 job alerts go out to prospective applicants. For this to happen within the first year of it being in existence gives us huge confidence it will continue to play a part in our members using it recruit the best and brightest talent in the sector.

Looking to 2025

I truly believe that our members and the wider industry will see the benefits of how the federation will help their business both now and in the future in some clear, tangible ways in 2025 and I’m looking forward to seeing our community continue to represent our sector in such a positive manner.